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THE 


ENGLISH  BIBLE. 

HISTOEY   OF   THE   TEANSLATION 

OP  THE 

INTO    THE    ENGLISH    TONGUE. 

WITH   SPECIMENS    OF   THE   OLD   ENGLISH   VERSIONS. 
BY 

MRS.   H.    C.    CONANT. 

AUTHOR  OF  TRANSLATIONS  OF  NEANDEE'S  PRACTICAL   COIIMENTAEIBS. 


The  Sacred  Book, 
In  (lusty  pequestralion  held  too  long, 
Assumes  tlie  accents  of  our  native  tonwne  ; 
And  he  who  guides  the  plough,  or  wields  the  crook, 
With  understanding  spirit  now  may  look 
Upon  her  records,  listen  to  her  song, 
And  sift  her  laws. 


NEW-YOliK: 
SUKLDON,    BLAKEMAN    &    OO. 

NASHVILLE :  GRAVES,  MARKS  &  RUTLAND. 

1856. 


Entered  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1856,  by 
SHELDON,  BLAKEMAN  &,CO., 

In  the  Clerk's  Office  of  the  District  Court  for  the  Southern  District  of 
New  York. 


J.  J.  EEED, 

PRINTER  AND   STEREOTTPBB, 

16  8pruce-St.,N.  T. 


ss 


PREFACE. 


This  volume  was  undertaken  from  tlie  wish  to 
meet  a  widely  extended  and  increasing  desire  for  in- 
formation, in  a  popular  form  and  within  moderate 
limits,  respecting  the  history  of  our  English  Bible. 
How  came  we  by  this  Bible  ?  What  were  its  ante- 
cedents ?  In  what  religious,  social,  political  condi- 
tion of  England  had  it  its  birth  ?  What  influences 
determined  its  primitive  character  and  form  ?  To 
what  modifying  agencies  has  it  been  subjected  in  the 
progress  of  its  history  ?  These  and  similar  questions 
are  now,  in  the  present  awakened  state  of  public  in- 
terest on  the  subject  of  Bible-translation,  asked  by 
multitudes  of  intelligent  and  thoughtful  persons,  who 
have  neither  the  time  nor  the  means  for  searching 
out  the  answers  for  themselves.  The  valuable  works 
on  the  subject,  already  before  the  public,  are  not 
adapted  to  the  wants  of  general  readers  ;  being 
chiefly  useful  as  works  of  reference  for  bibliographi- 
cal students.     That  of  Anderson,  (Annals  of  the 


IV  PREFACE. 

English  Bible,)  thougli  rich  in  valuable  and  interest- 
ing information  for  certain  portions  of  the  history,  is 
deficient  in  others  ;  and  it  is  moreover  too  volumin- 
ous, as  well  as  too  immethodical,  to  attract  such  as 
do  not  enjoy  a  superfluity  of  leisure  and  of  patience. 
It  has  been  my  object  in  this  volume,  simply  to  fur- 
nish such  an  account  of  the  early  English  versions 
and  revisions,  as  may  give  a  clear  idea  of  their  origin 
and  leading  characteristics,  and  of  the  general  influ- 
ence of  each  in  moulding  the  religious  history  of  the 
English  race.  This  design  admitted  of  greater  con- 
ciseness, without  abridging  those  historical  and  per- 
sonal details,  which  best  exhibit  the  subject  in  its 
connection  with  actual  human  life.* 

Brief  as  the  work  is,  however,  the  labor  bestowed 
on  its  preparation  has  not  been  trifling.  Indeed  its 
very  brevity  is  the  result  of  no  little  labor.  The 
length  of  time  embraced  in  the  history,  and  the  va- 
riety of  subjects  and  of  characters  necessarily  intro- 
duced for  its  illustration,  required  not  only  much 
diligent  investigation  for  the  collection  of  materials, 
but  much  labor  in  sifting  them,  in  order  to  keep  the 
work  within  limits  suited  to  common  readers.  But 
the  task,  though  toilsome,  has  been  full  of  pleasant- 
ness ;  and  I  shall  count  myself  happy,  if  it  shall  be- 

*  From  these  remarks  it  will  be  seen,  that  a  critical  description  of  editions 
and  copies  does  not  come  within  the  design  of  this  volume.  Such  a  work,  I  am 
happy  to  know,  may  be  expected  from  a  gentleman,  whose  intimate  ac- 
quaintance with  the  subject  warrants  tho  belief  that  it  will  be  one  of  great 
interest  and  value. 


PREFACE. 


come  the  means  of  communicating  to  other  minds  a 
more  lively  and  more  intelligent  interest  in  the  sub- 
ject of  which  it  treats.  No  other  Christian  people  can 
show  a  vernacular  Bible  with  such  a  history  as  ours  ; 
so  consecrated  by  high  purpose  and  noble  sacrifice, 
so  baptized  in  the  tears  and  blood  of  faithful  souls, 
so  linked  with  the  inmost  life  and  history  of  the 
people.  At  what  cost  the  Divine  Word  has  been 
placed  in  the  possession  of  the  English  race,  and 
what  it  has  done  for  that  race,  are  matters  which 
every  Christian  and  every  lover  of  his  country  has 
an  interest  in  knowing.  Without  such  knowledge, 
we  can  neither  rightly  estimate  its  value,  nor  labor 
intelligently  for  the  perpetuation  of  its  influence. 

The  friends,  who  have  kindly  aided  me  by  the  loan 
of  valuable  books,  will  please  to  accept  my  grateful 
acknowledgments  for  the  favor.  My  thanks  are  espe- 
cially due  to  George  Livermore,  Esq.,  of  Cambridge, 
Mass.,  for  loans  from  his  private  library,*  as  well  as 
for  other  friendly  services  ;  and  to  Wm.  H.  Wyckoflf, 
Esq.,  Cor.  Sec.  of  the  Am.  Bible  Union,  through  whose 
courtesy  I  have  had  the  use  of  important  works  from 
the  library  of  that  Society.  The  volumes  referred 
to  as  belonging  to  Harvard  University  Library,  were 
examined  for  me  by  a  literary  friend. 

*  It  is  a  noteworthy  and  interesting  fiict,  that  this  library,  collected  by  a 
layman  engaged  in  active  business,  contains  the  greatest  variety  of  rare  old 
versions  and  editions  of  the  English  Scriptures  to  be  found  in  this  country. 
Some  interesting  particulars  respecting  it,  are  given  in  Mr.  Farnham's  re- 
cent acount  of  Private  Libraries  in  the  vicinity  of  Boston. 


VI  PREFACE. 

The  principal  works  consulted  in  the  preparation 

of  this  volume  are  the  following  : 

Life  "and  Opinions  of  John  de  "Wycliffe  ;  by  Kobert 
Vaughan,  D.  D.    2  vols.  8vo.  London,  1828. 

John  de  Wvcliffe,  a  Monograph  ;  by  Robert  Vaughan, 
D.  D.    1853. 

The  first  of  these  works  is  not  superseded  hy  the  second,  which  omits  many 
interesting  details  of  the  earlier  memoir.  To  the  two  I  am  chiefly  indebted 
for  the  facts  of  Wickliffe's  history,  and  for  the  extracts  from  his  writings. 

The  History  of  the  Life  and  Sufferings  of  the  Rev- 
erend AND  Learned  John  Wicliffe.  D.  D.  By  John  Lewis. 
London,  1720. 

Preface  to  "Wicliffe's  Bible  ;  edited  by  Forshall  &  Mad- 
den, Oxford,  1850. 

Henry's  History  of  Great  Britain  ;  4th  ed.  London,  1805. 

Of  this  writer  the  Halle  Encyclopasdia  (Erseh  u.  Gruber's)  says : — "  The 
affairs  of  the  church,  the  inner  history  of  the  people,  government,  manners, 
commerce,  the  arts  and  sciences,  engaged  his  attention  to  a  greater  degree 
than  they  did  that  of  Hume ;  and  all  these  he  combines  in  a  series  of  graphic 
and  instructive  delineations,  the  result  of  his  own  careful  and  impartial  re- 
eearches."  For  the  character  of  the  Romish  priesthood,  and  the  condition 
of  England  under  their  sway,  this  author  has  been  chiefly  relied  on  in  the 
present  work. 

Henr.  Knyghton,  Chronica  Anglic,  (in  Twysden's  Scrip- 
iores  decern,  Vol.  II.) 

Hallam's  Middle  Ages. 

Annals  of  the  English  Bible  ;  by  Christopher  Anderson, 
8vo.  London,  1845.     2  vols. 

The  materials  for  the  personal  history  of  Tyndale  and  Frith  have  been 
chiefly  furnished  by  this  work. 

Memoir  of  "William  Tyndale,  by  George  Offor ;  (prefixed 
to  Bagster's  reprint  of  Tyndale's  New  Testament,  London, 
1836.) 


preface.  vu 

Introduction  to  Bagster's  Hexaplar  New  Testament. 

Writings  of  Tyndale  and  Frith  ;  (Works  of  the  Eng. 
Reformers,  eel.  by  Thomas  Russel,  London,  1831.) 

Rudhart's  Thomas  Morus,  aus  den  Quellen  bearbeitet ;  2to 
Ausg.  Augsburg,  1852. 

Fox's  Acts  and  Monuments  ;  folio,  Loudon,  1G41. 

Burnet's  History  of  the  Reformation  ;  2  vols,  4to.,  Lon- 
don, 1850. 

The  Works  of  Sir  Thomas  More,  Knyghte,  sometime 
Lorde  Chancellour  of  England,  wrytten  by  him  in  the  Englysh 
tonge  ;  4to.,  pp.  1458.     London,  1557. 

The  only  edition  of  bis  English  writings.  It  Was  published  by  Rastell  in 
the  last  year  of  Queen  Mary's  reign  ;  and  was  dedicated  to  her  majesty,  as 
an  important  aid  to  her  efforts  for  the  re- establishment  of  Romanism. 

Archbishop  Parker,  De  Antiquit.  Brit.  Ecclesi^  ;  Lon- 
don, 1729. 

Memorials  of  Miles  Coverdale  ;  London,  Samuel  Bagster, 
1838. 

Memoir  of  Miles  Coverdale;  prefixed  to  Bagster's  re- 
print of  Coverdalc's  translation  of  the  Bible. 

Lewis'  History  of  the  Translations  of  the  Holy  Bible 
INTO  English  ;  London,  1818. 

Preface  to  the  Genevan  New  Testament,  1557  ;  Bagster's 
fac-simile  reprint,  London. 

Preface  to  the  Genevan  Bible,  and  Dedication  to  Queen 
Elizabeth,  1560  ;  (from  the  Edition  of  1583). 

Strype's  Memorials  of  Archbishop  Oranmer  ;  2  vols.,  8vo. 
Oxford,  1840. 

Strype's  Life  and  Acts  of  Archbishop  Parker,  1  vol.  fol. 
London,  1740. 

Strype's  History  of  the  Life  and  Acts  of  Archbishop 
Grindal  ;  1  vol.  fol.     London,  1710. 


VUl  PREFACE. 

Strype's  Life  and  Acts  of  Archbishop  Whitgift  ;  1  vol. 
fol.    London,  1718. 

These  Memoirs  of  the  English  Protestant  Primates  in  the  sixteenth  cen- 
tury, were  writien  by  their  ardent  admirer  and  apologist,  himself  a  zealous 
High-Churchman,  From  his  representations  of  the  growth  of  Puritanism 
in  the  English  Church,  and  the  measures  used  for  its  suppression,  has  been 
drawn  the  account  given  of  them  in  this  volume. 

Fuller's  Church  Histopyj  3  vols.  8vo.     London,  1842. 

Strype's  Annals  of  the  Reformation  ;  Oxford,  1824. 

Archbishop  Parker's  Preface  to  the  Bishops'  Bible. 

Hefele,  Der  Cardinal  Ximenes  ;  Tubingen,  1851. 

Bishop  Barlow's  Account  of  the  Hampton  Court  Con- 
ference ;  London,  1604. 

Wilkins,  Concilia  Magn^  Brit,  et  Hib.    London,  1737. 
Gell's  Essay  towards  the  Amendment  of  the  last  Eng- 
lish Translation  of  the  Bible  ;  1  vol.  fol.  1659. 

Fulke's  Defence  of  the  English  Bible  ;  (ed.  for  the  Par- 
ker Society,  Cambridge,  1843). 

Whitelocke's  Memorials  of  the  English  Affairs  ;  Lon- 
don, 1732. 

Journals  of  the  House  of  Commons,  published  by  ordei 
of  the  House. 

Tischendorf's  Reise  in  den  Orient  ;  Leipzig,  1846. 

Translators'  Preface  to  King  James'  Revision,  (Field's 
Edition,  2  vols.  fol.  London,  1659),  and  Dedication  to  thw 
King. 


TABLE    OF    CONTENTS. 

PART    FIRST. 

ENGLAND    WITHOUT    THE    BIBLE 

CHAPTER  I. 
The  Bible  the  People's  Charter.  Relation  of  Wickliffe  tohis  Age.  13-18 

CHAPTER  II. 

The  Papal  Army  in  England.  The  Secular  Clergy.  The  Monks.  The 
Mendicant  Friars.        ..--.-.-  19-39 

CHAPTER  III. 

Counter- Influences  ;  their  Inefficiency.  Edward  III.  The  Barons. 
Magna  Charta.     The  Universities.    House  of  Commons.        -        40-47 

CHAPTER  IV. 

The  Bible-Apostle.  Opposes  the  Mendicant  Friars,  on  the  ground  of 
Scripture.  Summoned  to  Parliament.  Argues  against  the  Papal  claim 
to  tribute.  Advocates  the  exclusion  of  Churchmen  from  civil  office.  Be- 
comes Theological  Professor  at  O-xford.  His  teachings  anticipate  those  of 
the  Reformation.  ---------        48-53 


X  TABLE   OF   CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER  V. 

The  Pope  and  Bishops  in  the  Field.  Wickliffe  sent  as  ambassador  to 
the  Papal  Court.  Cited  before  the  Convocation  as  a  heretic.  Scene  at 
St.  Paul's.  Pive  Papal  Bulls  for  his  Apprehension.  His  advice  to  Par- 
liament. Trial  at  Lambeth.  Vindicates  the  civil  and  the  ecclesiastical 
rights  of  the  Laity.    Rescued  by  the  Londoners.    -        -        -        60-68 

CHAPTER  VI. 
The  New-Testament  Ministry  Revived.     AVickliffe's  Views  of  the 
Clerical  OfBce.    Labors  of  his  "  poore  priestes."     Alarm  of  the  Romish 
Clergy.     Fraudulent  Legislation.    True  Apostolic  Succession.    -    69-76 

CHAPTER  VII. 
"Wickliffe  Attacks  the  Citadel  of  Papal  Influence.    The  Catholic 
Theory  of  Communion.    Wickliffe's  Protestant  stand-point.    Silenced  at 
Oxford.    Retires  to  Lutterworth. 77-84 

CHAPTER  VIII. 
Wickliffe's  Writings  for  the  People.    Originates  Religious  Tracts. 
Influence  of  his  Popular  Writings.         .....        85-89 

CHAPTER  IX. 

The  First  English  Bible.  Wickliffe's  previous  labors  in  Bible-transla- 
tion. Right  of  the  laity  to  the  Scriptures.  His  Version  made  from  the 
Vulgate.     Wickliffe's  Death. 90-96 

CHAPTER  X. 

Influence  of  Wickliffe's  Version.  England's  only  Bible  for  a  hun- 
dred and  thirty  years.  Its  wide  diffusion.  Rapid  growth  of  the  spirit  of 
religious  freedom.  Checked  by  Henry  IV.  The  Lollards.  Statutes 
against  Wickliffe's  Bible.    Its  Character  and  Claims.    -        -        97-105 

CHAPTER  XL 

Wickliffe's  Influence  Abroad.  Effect  of  his  Writings  in  Bohemia. 
Huss,  and  Jerome  of  Prague.  Council  of  Constance.  Sentence  against 
Wickliffe's  writings.  His  body  condemned  to  be  disinterred  and  burned. 
Execution  of  the  Decree.  Increased  spread  of  his  Views  in  Bohemia, 
Bohemian  Bibles.  Influence  of  Bohemia  on  the  Reformation.  Wick- 
liffe's Relation  to  Modern  Christianity.         ...         -         106-112 


TABLE   OF   CONTENTS.  Zl 


PART    SECOXD. 

AGE    OP   BIBLE-TRANSLATION    IN    ENGLAND. 

CHAPTER  I. 

Religious  Aspects  of  England.  Wickliffe's  Bible,  and  the  Lollards, 
Revival  of  Learning  in  the  Schools.  Spread  of  the  Reformation  in  Eng- 
land,                115-123 

CHAPTER  IL 

Tyndale's  New  Testament.  Tyndale's  early  history.  His  youthful  at- 
tempts at  Bible-translation.  Seeks  the  patronage  of  Tunstal,  Bishop  of 
London.  Finds  that  the  Bible  cannot  be  translated  in  England.  Hum- 
phrey Monmouth  his  friend  and  patron.  Translates  his  New  Testament 
in  Hamburg.  Goes  to  Cologne  to  print  it.  Aided  by  English  Merchants, 
The  Bible  Hatee.  Councillor  Rincke.  Tyndale  obliged  to  flee  from 
Cologne  to  "Worms.  Change  of  Plans.  The  New  Testament  in  England. 
The  Secret  Search.  Fyshe's  "  Supplication  of  Beggars."  Thomas 
Garrett.  Scenes  at  Oxford  and  Cambridge.  Dr.  Barnes'  Trial.  Burn- 
ing of  New  Testaments.  The  King  Enlisted.  Luther's  Blunder. 
Royal  Prohibition  of  Tyndal's  Translation.  Efforts  for  its  Suppression  on 
the  Continent.  The  Bishops  on  the  Alert.  Archbishop  Warham  buys 
up  New  Testaments.  Wolsey  as  Vicar-General.  Trial  of  Arthur  and 
Bilney.    Constant  multiplication  and  spread  of  the  N.  Testament.  124-150 

CHAPTER  III. 

Tyndale's  Reformatory  Writings.  "  Parable  of  the  Wicked  Mammon." 
"The  Obedience  of' a  Christian  Man."  Light  thrown  by  these  writings 
on  the  State  of  the  Times,  and  the  Extortions  of  the  Clergy.  Tyndale's 
View  of  Church-offices  and  Sacraments.  Defends  the  Right  of  the  Laity 
to  the  Bible.  Theological  Training  in  the  Universities.  The  Bible  the 
only  safe  Guide.         --------        151-168 

CHAPTER  IV. 
Cardinal  Wolsey's  Measures  to  Silence  Tyndale.    Application  to  the 
Princess-Regent  of  Brabant  for  his  Arrest.    Imprisonment  of  his  friend 
Harman.    The  British  Merchant  takes  Reprisals.    Councillor  Ruacke  over- 
reached.   Tyndale  Safe  in  Marburg. 168-174 


Xn  TABLE  OF  CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER  V. 
The  New  Antagonist.    Character  of  Sir  Thomas  More.    His  early  con- 
nection with  Erasmus  and  the  Cause  of  Church-Reform.    Spirit  and  Sen- 
timents of  his  Utopia.         .......        175-182 

CHAPTER  VI. 

The  Reformer  Transformed.  Alarmed  for  the  Ancient  Faith.  Distrusts 
the  Reformation  as  Revolutionary.  More's  inward  religious  history. 
Characteristics  of  his  Controversial  Writings  for  the  People.  His  funda- 
mental principle, — the  Infallibility  of  the  Church.  The  Church  the  au- 
thoritative Interpreter  of  Scripture.   -        -        .        .        .        183-196 

CHAPTER  VII. 

Shall  the  People  have  the  Bible  1  More  Concedes  the  Principle  of 
Vernacular  Translation.  Advises  Postponement  to  a  more  favorable 
period.  Grounds  of  his  Opposition  to  Tyndale's  Translation.  Contrast 
with  Tyndale's  Views.  Persecuting  spirit  of  the  Anti-Bible  Principle. 
Tyndale's  Challenge  Unanswered.      ....        -        197-216 

CHAPTER  VIII. 

Sir  Thomas  More  as  Lord  Chancellor.  The  civil  power  now  takes  the 
lead  in  persecution.  Royal  Manifesto  against  Heretics.  Grand  move- 
ment against  Heretical  Books.  The  Scripture  in  the  Vernacular  declared 
Injurious.  Royal  Proclamation  against  Tyndale's  Writings.  Tnnstal's 
Bible-burning.  How  he  obtained  the  Bibles.  More  avows  himself  a 
Persecutor.  Defends  the  oath  ex-qfficio.  His  Opinion  of  Juries.  Advo- 
cates the  Violation  of  Safe-conducts  Granted  to  Heretics.  More's  Reverse. 
Cannot  Violate  his  Conscience.  His  Bitterness  towards  Heretics  Un- 
changed.          217-232 

CHAPTER  IX. 

The  TonTHTtjL  Marttr.  Character  of  Frith.  Friendship  of  Frith  and 
Tyndale  ;  their  Connection  in  the  Translation  of  the  Bible.  Frith's  Visit 
to  England.  Congregations  of  the  Faithful ;  Sir  Thomas  More's  Account 
of  them.  Grounds  of  More's  hatred  of  Frith.  Adventure  at  Reading. 
Frith  Entrapped  and  Imprisoned  in  the  Tower.  His  Letter  from  Prison 
to  the  "Faithful."  Tyndale's  Letters  to  Frith.  Controversy  of  the 
latter  with  Rastell  while  in  the  Tower.  Controversy  with  the  Lord  Chan- 
cellor. Spirit  and  demeanor  of  Frith  in  Prison.  His  Trial  Appointed. 
Efforts  to  Save  Him.    Trial,  Conviction  aud  Execution.        -        233-2C0 


TABLE    OF    CONTENTS.  Xlll 


CHAPTER  X. 


AnneBoletn:  the  Royal  Patroness.  Peculiar  Circumstances  of  Henry'a 
Marriage.  Wolsey's  Intrigues.  Henry  seeks  to  obtain  a  Divorce.  Early 
Life  of  Anne  Boleyn.  Anne  at  the  English  Court.  Wolsey  and  the 
Bishops  enter  into  the  King's  Plan.  Pope  Clement's  Policy.  Henry  ap- 
peals to  the  Universities.  Prepares  for  a  Rupture  with  Rome  ;  Message 
to  the  House  of  Commons  ;  Humiliation  of  the  Clergy.  Marriage  with 
Anne  Boleyn.  Contrast  between  More  and  Tyndale  in  regard  to  the 
Divorce.  Tyndale's  Practice  of  Prelates.  Queen  Anne's  connexion  with 
the  Reformation.  Richard  Harman.  Tyndale's  Gift.  Anne's  Influence 
in  favor  of  the  Bible.  Hatred  of  the  Popish  Party.  Conspiracy  against 
Anne. 261-287 

CHAPTER  XI. 

The  Martyrdom  of  Tyndale.  Efforts  to  Entrap  Tyndale.  The  English 
Envoy,  Stephen  Vaughan.  Interviews  with  Tyndale.  Sir  Thomas  More, 
the  Instigator  of  these  Measures.  Vaughan's  Plea  for  Religious  Lilierty. 
The  New  Envoy ;  his  Efforts  to  seize  Tyndale.  The  Reformer's  Life  at 
Antwerp.  The  Bishops'  Plot.  Tyndale's  Apprehension.  Thomas  Pointz. 
The  Decree  of  Augsburg.    Tyndale's  Condemnation  and  Death.  288-306 

CHAPTER  XIL 
Triumph  of  the  Principle.  Truth  not  Dependent  on  its  Champions.  Re- 
view of  the  Progress  of  the  Bible  up  to  Tyndale's  Death.  Thomas  Crum- 
well;  grounds  of  his  interest  in  the  People's  Bible.  Matthew's  Bible.  Its 
Singular  Introduction  into  England.  Authorized  by  the  King  for  use  in 
Churches.  Allowed  to  all  Classes.  Henry's  zeal ;  stringent  requisitions 
in  Favor  of  the  Bible  ;  copies  placed  in  Churches  for  the  Use  of  the  People. 
.  Its  Welcome  by  the  Commonalty.  Prelates  obliged  to  Countenance  it. 
Romish  Dogmas  in  Bad  Repute.  Henry's  Alarm  at  the  Influence  of  the 
Bible.  Restrictions  on  its  Use.  The  Six  Articles.  Character  of  Ed- 
ward's Reign.  The  Principle  Triumijhant.  The  Protestant  Principle,  as 
Applied  to  Bible-Translation.  Permanence  of  Tyndale's  New  Testa- 
ment.               305-327 

CHAPTER  XIIL 

Coverdale's  Bible.    Reasons  for  the  Undertaking.    Utility  of  Various 

Translations.     Character  of  the  Version.     Hindrances.     Coverdale,  tho 

Overseer  of  the  Great  Bible  (Tyndale's).    His  nonconformity  and  suffer- 

inffs.        ...---.---        328-332 


XIV  TABLE    OF    CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER  XIV 
Tavernee's  Bible. 333-334 

CHAPTER  XV. 

Cranmer's  Bible.  Early  Life  of  Cranmer.  Veneration  for  the  Scriptures. 
Influence  as  Primate  in  Pavor  of  Vernacular  Translation.  Revision  of 
Tyndale's  Version.  Preface.  Counter-plot  of  the  Bishops.  The  Angli- 
can Church.  Cranmer's  Intolerance.  Treatmentof  Gardiner;  of  Hooper; 
of  Sectaries  and  Heretics.  Essential  Vice  of  a  State  Church.  Vital 
Distinction  between  the  Anglican  and  the  Romish  Church.  Progress  of 
the  Bible  under -Edward  VI. 335-343 

CHAPTER  XVI. 

The  Reign  op  Terror.  Character  of  Queen  Mary.  Her  Early  Misfor- 
tunes. First  Steps  on  Her  Accession.  Obscurantism  Inaugurated. 
Protestant  Exiles.  Romanism  Re-established.  Unparalelled  Cruelties. 
The  Congregations.  Evidences  of  the  Progressive  Influence  of  the 
Bible. 349-360 

CHAPTER  XVII. 

The  Genevan  Bible.  English  Exiles.  Spirit  of  the  Age  in  Respect  to 
Bible-Translation.  Proposal  of  a  New  Version.  Zeal  of  the  Lay-exiles. 
John  Bodleigh.  Peculiar  Advantages  at  Geneva.  Calvin's  Preface  to 
the  New  Testament.  Scholarship  of  the  Genevan  Bible.  Division  into 
Verses.  Becomes  the  Family  Bible  of  England.  Causes  of  its  Success. 
Its  Agency  in  the  Development  of  Puritanism.  Its  Influence  not  wholly 
Beneficial. 361-370 

CHAPTER  XVIIL 
The  Bishops'  Bible.  Preliminary  View.  Liberal  Spirit  of  the  Returned 
Exiles.  Counter-policy  of  Elizabeth.  Action  of  her  first  Parliament. 
The  Court  of  High  Commission.  The  Star  Chamber.  The  Reformed 
Clergy  Succumb  to  the  Queen ;  Establishment  of  Uniformity.  Noncon- 
formity the  Nurse  of  Civil  Freedom.  List  of  Dangerous  innovations- 
Grounds  of  Puritan  Dissent.  Measures  of  Archbishop  Parker.  Trial  of 
Sampson  and  Humphrey ;  C  italion  of  the  London  Ministers ;  Oppressive 
Injunction.  Coverdale  and  Fox.  Leading  Traits  of  the  Conflicting 
Parties. 371-391 


TABLE    OF    CONTENTS.  XV 

CHAPTER  XIX. 
The  Bishops'  Bible — Continued.  Archbishop  Parker  the  Projector  ancj 
Overseer  of  the  \York.  His  Motives.  Continued  Influence  of  the  Genevan 
Version.  Anti- Episcopal  Feature  of  the  Church-Bible.  Parker's  Pre- 
face. Scholarship  of  the  Bishops'  Bible.  Its  Sectarian  Character.  Sulj- 
sequent  Restoration  of  Readings  from  the  Vulgate.      -        -        392-402 

CHAPTER  XX. 
The  Rhemish  or  Douay  Bible.     Translators'  Views  of  Verna-;ular  Bibles. 
Policy  of  the  Romish  Church.      Cardinal   Ximenes.     Reasons  for   this 
Translation.    Its  Characteristics.    Influence  of  the  Douay  Bible.   403-405 

CHAPTER  XXI. 
The  Common  Version.  State  of  Parties  at  the  Death  of  Elizabeth.  Re- 
actionary Influence  of  Persecution.  Prospect  of  a  Puritan  sovereign. 
James'  non-committal  Policy.  Summons  the  Hampton  Court  Conference. 
Triumph  of  the  Prelatical  Party.  Royal  Epistle.  New  Translation  Pro- 
posed by  the  Puritans.  Motives  of  James'  Concurrence.  State  of  Pub- 
lic Opinion.  Hugh  Broughton's  efforts  for  a  Revision  of  the  Church- 
Bible.  The  Puritanic  Influence  of  the  Genevan  Version.  The  King's 
Plan. 409-42S 

CHAPTER  XXII. 
The  Common  Version — Continued.  The  King's  liberal  arrangements  for 
Securing  and  Rewarding  Competent  Revisers.  Rules  of  Translation 
prescribed  by  the  King.  Principles  involved  in  these  Rules.  Their  In- 
fluence on'  the  Character  of  the  Version.  Its  Scholarship.  Contempo- 
raneous Criticism.  Obstacles  to  its  Reception,  within  and  without  the 
Church.  Measures  for  a  New  Translation.  The  Just  Claims  of  the  Com- 
mon Version.    ---------        427-446 

CHAPTER    XXIII. 

Conclusion. 

Retrospective  View.  Leading  Characteristics  and  Influence  of  English 
Bible-Translation.  New  and  Brilliant  Era  of  Sacred  Learning.  Pro- 
'gress  in  every  Branch  of  Biblical  Knowledge.  Restoration  of  the  Original 
Text  for  the  Use  of  the  Learned.  Present  State  of  Scholarship  two  Cen- 
turies in  Advanoo  of  the  English  Bible.       -        -        -        -        747-452 


APPENDIX. 

I.  Specimens  of  the  Early  English  Versions.        -        -        -  45-4 

II.  The  Immaculate  Conception.     ------  454 

III.  The  Soldier's  Bible.  .-."-..--  464 


CHAPTER  I. 


THE   BIBLE   THE   PEOPLE'S   CHARTER.     RELATION 
OF  WICKLIFFE  TO  HIS  AGE. 

It  was  a  great  day  for  England,  -when  John  Wickliffo 
first  conceived  the  idea  of  giving  to  his  countrymen  the 
Whole  Bible,  in  the  common  tongue.  The  execution  of 
that  idea  is  the  leading  event  of  the  fourteenth  century. 
It  would  not  be  too  much,  perhaps,  to  call  it  the  leading 
event  in  Anglo-Saxon  history. 

To  Wickliffe  belongs  the  peculiar  honor  of  having  re- 
kindled, from  the  ashes  of  the  past,  the  doctrine  of  the  es- 
sential worth  and  equal  rights  of  men.  His  claim  that,  in 
regard  to  the  highest  interest  of  humanity,  all  men  are 
equal ;  namely,  in  the  right  of  each  to  know  for  himself, 
and  to  obey  the  will  of  God ;  that  here  the  king  can  claim 
nothing  above  the  serf,  the  priest  nothing  above  the  lay- 
man ;  the  absolute  supremacy  of  the  individual  conscience 
in  matters  of  religion  ;  this  involved  the  ultimate  recogni- 
tion of  all  inferior  rights. 

This  idea,  which  breathes  through  the  whole  spirit  of 


14  THE    ENGLISH    BIBLE 

primitive  Christianity,  had  been  long  lost  to  the  world.  It 
was  indeed  alien  to  the  spirit  of  the  world.  The  most  en- 
lightened nations  of  antiquity  knew  it  not.  The  wisest 
and  purest  of  pagan  philosophers,  who  searched  deepest 
into  the  character  of  God  and  the  destiny  of  man,  never 
attained  to  this  glorious  and 'ennobling  truth.  Even  when 
they  come  so  near  it,  as  to  discern  a  special  providence 
guiding  the  affairs  of  individuals ;  it  is  still  only  the  great 
men,  the  patriots  and  philosophers,  whom  they  deem  wor- 
thy of  such  care.  "  Great  men,"  say  they,  "  enjoy  the 
peculiar  oversight  and  influence  of  the  gods  ;  inferior  per- 
sons they  disregard."  The  highest  truths,  those  especially 
which  respect  the  nature  of  God,  must  be  veiled  in  mys- 
teries and  sealed  by  oaths  from  the  vulgar  rabble,  who  are 
to  be  held  in  subjection  by  scarecrows  and  mummeries, 
which  the  wise  ones  laugh  at.  Even  their  Elysium  was 
peopled  only  by  the  spirits  of  sages  and  heroes.  Thus 
were  the  masses  of  the  human  race  abandoned,  to  live  and 
die  like  the  brutes  which  perish. 

When  Christ  appeared,  there  dawned  a  new  day  for  the 
poor  and  down-trodden.  He  made  it  the  distinguishing 
glory  of  his  ministry,  to  preach  the  Gospel  to  the  poor. 
The  Christian  communities,  which  owed  their  existence  to 
the  immediate  effusion  of  his  Spirit  after  his  ascension, 
were  strictly  companies  of  brethren,  with  one  Head  and 
Lawgiver,  their  risen  and  glorified  Lord.  Men  from  the 
most'  diverse  conditions  of  society  here  met  on  terms  of 
perfect  equality  ;  united  by  a  noble  and  endearing  relation- 
ship, whose  ties  were  stronger  than  those  of  caste,  or  blood, 
or  nation.  What  a  foundation  was  here  laid,  for  the  pro- 
tection and  elevation  of  the  weak  and  defenceless  classes 
of  society ! 


THE    BIBLE    THE    PEOPLe's    CHARTER.  15 

With  the  decline  of  the  apostolic  spirit  in  other  respects, 
this  idea  also  faded  frodi  the  Christian  consciousness.  A 
splendid  hierarchy,  appointed  to  rule  God's  heritage,  was 
an  institution  utterly  at  variance  with  the  conception  of 
the  church  as  a  community  of  brethren.  With  the  growth 
and  consolidation  of  this  mighty  spiritual  power,  the  lay 
element  in  the  church  continually  declined  in  importance, 
till  at  length  the  people  became  the  mere  tools  and  bond- 
slaves of  the  priesthood. 

The  aim  of  the  Romish  prelacy  was  no  less,  than  the 
entire  monopoly  of  all  ecclesiastical  and  all  secular  rule. 
The  vital  element  of  power,  knowledge,  it  had  gradually 
withdrawn  wholly  into  its  own  hands.  It  has  frequently 
been  made  the  subject  of  praise  to  the  papal  clergy,  that 
they  alone  were  the  depositaries  of  learning,  at  a  period 
when  all  other  classes  of  society  were  sunk  in  ignorance 
and  barbarism.  Should  it  not  rather  be  accounted  their 
shame  ?  Who  can  doubt,  that  if  the  hosts  of  the  Eomish 
priesthood  had  encouraged  the  general  diffusion  of  know- 
ledge, the  dark  ages  would  have  been  ages  of  light  ?  Could 
not  the  parish  priest  have  awakened,  in  the  humble  portion 
of  his  flock,  that  spirit  of  improvement  which  is  every  where, 
even  in  the  most  debased  heathen  countries,  the  fruit  of 
Protestant  missions  ?  Could  not  the  monastery  have  be- 
come a  fountain  of  intelligence  to  all  the  adjacent  commu- 
nity ?  Boast  not  of  the  light  thus  hid  within  the  cloister, 
for  the  use  and  delight  of  its  few  holy  inmates ;  while 
thousands  of  their  fellow-creatures  groped,  under  their  very 
walls,  in  the  blindness  of  the  deepest  midnight ! 

But  a  general  diffusion  of  knowledge,  and  the  monopoly 
of  power  in  the  hands  of  a  few,  are  ideas  entirely  incom- 
patible with  each  other.     The  power  of  the  hierarchy  de- 


16  THE   ENGLISH   BIBLE. 

manded  the  ignorance  of  the  masses.  The  policy  by  which 
it  reached  its  end  was  masterly.  -  When  the  Holy  Scrip- 
tures were  taken  from  the  common  people,  they  lost  the 
charter  of  their  rights  as  men  ;  in  time,  the  very  conscious- 
ness of  their  manhood.  Thus  the  great  body  of  all  the 
nations  of  Christendom  sunk*  from  one  degree  of  debase- 
ment to  another,  till  they  became  the  prey  of  every  spoiler ; 
till  the  people,  the  cultivators  of  the  soil,  the  industrious 
artisans,  the  actual  producers  of  the  national  wealth,  had 
no  power,  no  rights.  They  were  the  rabble,  the  vulgar 
herd,  the  mob,  to  be  used  or  abused  without  limit  or 
mercy,  for  the  benefit  of  their  masters. 

Nothing  could  more  significantly  indicate  their  social 
position,  than  the  scantiness  of  contemporaneous  informa- 
tion in  regard  to  it.  History  relates  the  doings  of  Popes 
and  Councils,  of  Kings  and  Nobles.  But  it  seems  rarely 
to  have  occurred  to  the  learned  chronicler  of  the  times, 
that  the  condition  of  the  people  constitutes  any  part  of 
history.  Now  and  then  some  social  earthquake  rends  the 
veil,  and  we  catch  a  glimpse  which  makes  the  heart  ache ; 
for  we  see  there,  spite  of  ignorance,  superstition,  and  all 
the  vices  of  their  degraded  state,  living  human  souls,  burn- 
ing and  writhing  under  the  keen  sense  of  outrage  and  op- 
pression ;  capable,  therefore,  of  sweet  affections,  of  gene- 
rous and  noble  deeds,  of  goodness  and  piety.  At  some 
new  or  more  galling  wrong,  outraged  humanity  has  over- 
burst  the  bounds  of  discreet  submission.  The  rude  mass, 
for  a  moment,  heaves  convulsively  ;  agonizing  cries  for  re- 
dress, fierce  threats  of  vengeance,  disturb  the  air ;  and 
then  it  is  crushed  down  again  by  the  iron  hand  of  power, 
to  weep,  and  bleed,  and  curse  in  silence. 

Such  was  the  condition  of  a  majority  of  the  inhabitants 


THE    BIBLE    THE    PEOPLe's    CHARTER,  17 

of  England  in  the  fourteentli  century.  Where  now  was 
help  and  redemption  to  be  looked  for  ?  The  barons  had 
already,  a  hundred  years  before,  wrested  from  the  monarch 
the  recognition  of  their  own  rights,  the  famous  Magna 
Charta.  But  on  their  side  was  wealth  and  power.  With 
his  immense  landed  possessions,  his  castle-fortress,  his 
thousands  of  retainers,  each  baron  was  a  petty  king.  Com- 
bination among  these  powerful  lords  was  equivalent  to  suc- 
cess. But  the  poor,  unlettered,  unarmed  populace  gained 
nothing  by  this  triumph  of  their  masters.  Their  only 
hope,  though  they  knew  it  not,  was  in  the  restoration  of 
what  will  ever  be  the  only  Magna  Charta  of  the  weak — 
The  Holy  Scriptures. 

Then  arose  the  Man  of  the  Age.  Among  the  brilliant 
and  imposing  forms  that  crowd  the  arena  of  that  stirring 
time — the  magnificent  Edward  III,  and  his  chivalrous  son, 
the  martial  barons,  the  gorgeous  array  of  ecclesiastical 
dignitaries — stands  alone  and  preeminent  the  apostolic 
form  of  John  Wycklifi'e,  Rector  of  Lutterworth. 

We  call  him  the  man  of  the  age,  who  into  a  dead  Past 
drops  the  seed  of  a  living  Future ;  who  infuses  into  the 
social  mass  leavening  ideas,  which,  sooner  or  later,  by  their 
inherent  quickening  energy,  work  essential  changes  in  the 
inner  and  outer  life  of  society.  This  John  WickliiFe  did. 
The  supreme  and  binding  authority  of  the  Holy  Scriptures 
as  the  guide  of  Christian  faith  and  life ;  the  right  of  all 
men,  without  distinction,  to  the  possession  of  the  Scrip- 
tures ;  these  are  the  living  thoughts  which  Wickliffe  cast 
into  the  soil  of  the  fourteenth  century.  They  inspired  the 
labors  of  his  active  years  ;  they  culminated  in  that  great 
gift  to  the  Anglo-Saxon  race,  the  Holy  Bible  in  the  com- 
mon tongue. 


18  THE   ENGLISH    BIELE. 

To  US,  in  this  later  age,  these  ideas  may  seem  too  ob- 
vious to  merit  the  place  here  assigned  them.  Not  so  when 
first  announced.  Then,  they  startled  like  an  earthquake. 
And  -well  they  might;  for  they  struck  at  the  root  of  that 
vast  system  of  spiritual  fraud,  by  which  merchandise  had 
BO  long  been  made  of  the  souls  of  men. 

It  may  seem  also  that  too  wide  and  lasting  an  influence 
is  ascribed  to  Wicklifi'e's  version  of  the  Scriptures.  A 
work  circulated  only  in  manuscript,  and  at  a  period  when 
so  few  of  the  laity  acquired  even  the  first  rudiments  of 
learning,  cannot,  it  maybe  thought,  have  made  a  very  deep 
impression  on  the  national  character.  But  when  we  take 
into  account  Wicklifi'e's- preparatory  labors,  for  more  than 
thirty  years,  it  will  be  seen  that  no  book,  before  the  inven- 
tion of  printing,  ever  enjoyed  such  advantages  for  becoming 
generally  known.  His  conflicts  with  the  Papacy  at  home 
and  abroad,  involving  political  and  social  questions  of  vital 
interest  to  the  nation,  his  preaching  and  his  writings  in 
the  despised  vernacular,  and  the  labors  of  his  "  poore 
priestes,"  (those  pious  itinerants  whom  he  had  sent  forth 
over  the  length  and  breadth  of  England,)  had  awakened  a 
mental  activity,  a  spirit  of  enquiry  before  unknown ;  and 
in  numerous  instances,  an  earnest  religious  life.  The  at- 
tention of  all  classes  had  thus  been  turned  to  the  Holy 
Scriptures.  Among  high  and  low,  there  was  that  hunger 
for  the  word  of  God,  whose  power  to  conquer  difficulties, 
we,  in  this  day  of  intellectual  and  spiritual  fullness,  can 
but  imperfectly  appreciate. 

The  details  of  the  following  chapters  will  enable  us  to 
estimate  more  perfectly  the  labors  and  influence  of  this 
great  man,  the  Father  of  English  Bible- Translation. 


CHAPTER  II. 


THE  PAPAL  ARMY  IN  ENGLAND. 

We  first  find  "Wicklifi'e  in  active  conflict  with  the  errors 
and  abuses  of  the  age,  about  the  middle  of  the  fourteenth 
century.  Let  us  briefly  survey  the  religious  circumstances 
of  England  at  that  time. 

At  the  first  glance,  we  observe  three  leading  forces, 
which,  from  the  date  of  the  Conquest,  had  been  contending 
for  supremacy  in  England,  viz. :  the  Crown,  the  Barons, 
and  the  Papacy.  The  monarchs  strove  continually  to 
stretch  the  royal  prerogative  into  absolutism ;  t"he  barons 
to  maintain  and  increase  their  feudal  rights  at  the  expense 
of  the  crown  ;  while  the  Pope  aimed  at  nothing  less  than 
to  make  England  a  mere  appanage  of  Rome.  In  this 
great  game,  the  Papacy  had  proved  itself  by  far  the 
shrewder  hand.  Siding  now  with  the  king,  now  with  the 
nobles,  it  had  improved  every  internal  division  in  the  king- 
dom, every  appeal  to  itself  as  supreme  arbiter,  for  secur- 
ing new  advantages  and  a  firmer  hold.  It  had  now  an  ec- 
clesiastical  army  in   England,  countless  in   numbers,  so 


20  THE    ENGLISH    BIBLE. 

tborovigbly  organized  and  so  bound  by  self-interest  to  its 
will,  as  to  render  tbe  Pontiff  of  Kome  the  controlling 
power  in  the  English  realm.  This  army  was  arranged  in 
three  grand  divisions.     First, 

THE      SECULAR      CLERGY. 

This  body,  including  bishops  with  their  subordinate  dig- 
nitaries, and  the  various  ranks  of  parish  priests  under  their 
control,  were  charged  with  the  spiritual  oversight  and  in- 
struction of  the  community.  To  the  office  of  the  prelates 
were  attached  immense  landed  estates,  princely  revenues 
and  high  civil,  as  well  as  ecclesiastical  powers ;  the  lower 
clergy,  residing  on  livings  among  the  people,  were  supported 
chiefly  by  tithes  levied  on  their  respective  parishes. 

The  corruption  of  this  body  throughout  Christendom, 
had  given  rise,  even  so  early  as  the  fourth  century,  to 
monachism.  Their  frightful  profligacy  in  the  time  of 
Wickliffe  was  mainly  due  to  three  causes,  all  of  which  ori- 
ginated directly  from  their  connexion  with  the  See  of  Rome. 

1st.  Their  exemption,  in  common  with  all  other  orders 
of  the  clergy,  from  civil  jurisdiction.  A  clergyman,  of 
whatever  off"ence  against  the  laws  of  the  land  he  might  be 
guilty,  could  not  be  tried  by  any  civil  court  of  the  realm. 
All  such  offenders  were  claimed  by  the  Church,  whose  tri- 
bunals, subject  only  to  appeals  to  Rome,  dealt  so  tenderly 
with  her  beloved  sons,  that  the  land  groaned  under  the 
crimes  of  its  religious  teachers.  It  was  publicly  stated  to 
Henry  II.  by  his  judges,  that  during  the  first  ten  years 
of  his  reign,  more  than  a  hundred  murders  had  been  com- 
mitted by  clergymen,  besides  thefts,  robberies,  and  other 
crimes,  for  which  they  could  not  punish  them.*  Suc- 
*  Henry's  Hist.,  vol.  vi.  p.  59. 


THE  PAPAL  ARMY  IN  ENGLAND.  21 

cessive  English  sovereigns  strove  with  all  their  might  to 
wrest  from  them  so  dangerous  an  immunity.  But  this  in- 
dependence of  secular  government  being  essential  to  the 
PontiflF's  absolute  control  over  his  vassals,  their  morals, 
and  the  welfare  of  the  country,  were  of  no  weight  in  the 
balance.  Thus,  early  in  this  century,  an  effort  having 
been  made  by  Edward  II.  to  bring  the  clergy  under  some 
subjection  to  the  laws, Pope  Clement  directed  a  bull  to  the 
Archbishop  of  Canterbury,  complaining  "  that  clerks  in- 
vested with  the  sacerdotal  character,  and  shining  with  the 
splendor  of  pontifical  dignity,  were  tried  by  laymen,  con- 
demned, and  hanged,  when  found  guilty  of  robbery  or  mur- 
der, to  the  great  provocation  of  the  Supreme  King,  who 
hath  forbidden  the  secular  power  to  touch  his  anointed." 
He  requires,  therefore,  that  the  grievance  be  redressed,  on 
the  penalty  of  excommunication  to  the  ofi"ending  monarch 
and  his  kingdom. 

2d.  Their  enforced  celibacy.  The  native  English  clergy 
long  resisted  the  imposition  of  this  part  of  the  Romish 
policy  ;  but  were  at  length  compelled  to  bow  to  the  iron 
system,  which  sought  to  bind  them  to  the  central  power,  by 
the  obliteration  of  every  tie  of  family  and  country.  The 
name  of  Anselm,  shine  as  it  may  in  the  history  of  sys- 
tematic theology,  should  be  forever  infamous  to  the  friend 
of  humanity,  for  the  pitiless  rigor  with  which  he  enforced 
this  measure.  In  1 102,  he  held  an  ecclesiastical  council  at 
London,  where  no  fewer  than  ten  canons  were  made  for 
this  single  object.  All  priests,  even  the  very  lowest,  were 
commanded  to  put  away  their  wives  immediately,  not  to 
suffer  them  to  live  on  any  lands  belonging  to  the  church, 
never  to  see  or  speak  to  them,  except  in  cases  of  the 
greatest  necessity  and  in  the  presence  of  two  or  three  wit* 


22  THE    ENGLISH    BIBLE. 

nesses.  "  Those  unhallowed  wretches  who  refused,  were  in- 
stantlj  to  be  deposed  and  excommunicated,  and  all  their 
goods,  as  well  as  the  goods  and  persons  of  their  wives,  as 
in  the  case  of  adulteresses,  were  to  be  forfeited  to  the 
bishop  of  the  diocese."*  Succeeding  prelates  followed  the 
lead  of  Anselm,  and  episcopal  and  legantine  councils  urged 
the  measure,  till  the  long  struggle  ended  in  the  final  estab- 
lishment of  celibacy,  and  the  secular  clergy  were  sealed  to 
utter  and  irreclaimable  profligacy. 

3d.  The  sale  of  clerical  oflBces.  The  claim  of  the 
Papacy  to  the  control  of  the  English  benefices,  asserted 
centuries  before,  but  long' withstood  by  the  secular  power, 
was  at  this  time  fully  established  in  practice.  The  Pope 
of  Rome  was  now  farmer-general  of  the  English  church. 
He  who  could  pay  highest  was  sure  of  the  place  in  market, 
whether  it  were  a  country  parish,  or  the  Primacy  of  Eng- 
land ;  and  the  buyer  must  in  turn,  farm  it  out  in  the  way 
which  would  bring  the  largest  percentage  on  the  cost.  The 
richest  prizes  fell  to  Italians,  parasites  of  the  Pope,  some 
of  whom,  though  unable  to  speak  a  word  of  English,  and 
who  had  never  set  foot  on  English  soil,  held  twenty,  thirty, 
nay,  some  of  them  fifty  and  sixty  valuable  benefices  in  the 
English  church.  On  the  revenues  thus  obtained  they  lived 
in  magnificence  at  Rome,  and  laid  up  enormous  fortunes, 
notwithstanding  the  large  yearly  sums  paid  out  of  them 
into  the  papal  treasury.  The  resident  clergy  who  held  of 
such  masters,  must,  of  necessity,  be  like  their  masters.  An 
honest,  merciful,  conscientious  priest  stood  no  chance  of 
promotion  under  such  a  system.  Hence,  as  we  learn  from 
Wicklifife,  men  who  were  too  poor  or  too  conscientious  to 
pay  the  re(][uired  bribes,  were  virtually  excluded  from  the 

*  Henry,  vol  7  p-  307. 


THE    PAPAL    ARMY    IN    ENGLAND.  23 

sacred  oflSce,  whatever  might  be  their  piety  and  talents. 
Thus  the  professed  ministers  of  salvation  were  converted 
into  an  army  of  Romish  bailiffs,  whose  great  business  it 
was  to  enrich  tlieir  masters  and  themselves  out  of  the  pluli- 
der  of  the  people,  and  whose  anathemas  were  launched 
from  the  pulpit  against  those  who  withheld  tithes,  as  worse 
than  adulterers,  murderers,  and  blasphemers.* 

THE     MONKS. 

The  Monks,  known  also  as  the  Regular  Clergy,  and  the 
Religious  Orders,  lived  in  small  communities  by  them- 
selves, having  taken  the  vows  of  perpetual  chastity,  poverty 
and  seclusion. 

We  have  no  right  to  doubt  that  monachism  was,  in  its 
origin,  a  sincere  attempt  to  revive  the  piety  of  the  primi- 
tive church  ;  or  that  it  did  for  a  time  check  the  progress 
of  corruption,  and  by  the  cultivation  of  learning,  shed  an 

*  "  General  excommunications,"  as  they  were  called,  which  came  into 
use  about  the  middle  of  the  thirteenth  century,  "were,"  says  Henry,  "at 
first  denounced  chiefly  against  such  as  injured  the  clergy  by  detaining  their 
tithes,  defrauding  them  of  any  of  their  dues,  or  stealing  anything  belonging 
to  the  church.  They  were  to  be  published  by  every  parish  priest  in  his 
holy  vestments,  with  bells  tolling  and  candles  lighted,  before  the  whole  con- 
gregation, in  the  mother  tongue,  on  Christmas,  Easter,  Pentecost,  and  All- 
Hallows-day.  That  these  excommunications  might  make  the  greater  im- 
pression on  tender  consciences  or  timorous  natures,  they  contained  the  most 
horrible  infernal  curse  that  could  be  devised :  '  Let  them  be  accursed  eating 
and  drinking  ;  walking  and  sitting ;  speaking  and  holding  their  peace  ; 
waking  and  sleeping  ;  rowing  and  riding ;  laughing  and  weeping ;  in  house 
and  in  field  ;  on  water  and  on  land,  in  all  places.  Cursed  be  their  head  and 
their  thoughts ;  their  eyes  and  their  ears  ;  their  tongues  and  their  lips ; 
their  teeth  and  their  throats  ;  their  shoulders  and  their  breasts ;  their  feet 
and  their  legs  ;  their  thighs  and  their  inwards.  Let  them  remain  accursed 
from  the  bottom  of  the  foot  to  the  crown  of  the  head,  unless  they  bethink 
themselves  and  come  to  satisfaction.  And  just  as  this  candle  is  deprived  of 
its  present  light,  so  let  them  be  deprived  of  their  souls  h.  hell.'  " 


24  THE    ENGLISH    BIBLE* 

ameliorating:  influence  into  the  darkness  and  barbarism  of 
the  limes.  But  it  had  an  inherent  vice  in  its  constitu- 
tion,— a  want  of  adaptation  to  the  nature  of  man.  It  was 
a  morbid,  not  a  healthy  oifshoot  of  Christianity.  For  a 
while,  the  spirit  infused  into  it  by  its  austere  founders, 
maintained  supremacy.  But  with  the  growth  of  worldly 
power  and  wealth,  this  artificial  life  gradually  died  out, 
and  the  latent  evils  of  the  system  developed  themselves  in 
loathsome  luxuriance.  Ambition,  avarice,  and  the  grossest 
forms  of  vice  took  the  place  of  ascetic  virtue.  An  over- 
wrought spiritualism  reacted  into  a  swinish  sensualism. 
Monasteries  became  the  lazar-houses  of  Christendom.  Such 
do  we  find  them  in  England  in  the  14th  century. 

The  wealth  of  the  English  monks  at  this  period,  almost 
passes  belief.  During  the  eleventh  and  twelfth  centuries, 
the  endowment  of  monasteries  was  a  mania  in  Christen- 
dom. Lands,  buildings,  precious  stones,  gold  and  silver, 
were  lavished  upon  them  with  unsparing  prodigality.  Rich 
men,  disgusted  with  the  world,  or  conscience-stricken  for 
their  sins,  not  unfrequently  entei*ed  the  cloister  and  made 
over  to  it  their  whole  property.  During  the  crusading 
epidemic,  many  mortgaged  their  estates  to  the  religious 
houses  for  ready  money,  who  never  returned,  or  were  too 
much  impoverished  to  redeem  them.  In  this  way  vast 
riches  accrued  to  their  establishments.  They  understood, 
to  perfection,  all  the  traditional  machinery  of  the  church 
for  extracting  money  from  high  and  low.  The  exhibition 
of  relics,  the  performance  of  miracles,  and  above  all-,  the 
sale  of  indulgences,  and  of  masses   for   the  dead,*  formed 

*  The  will  of  Lord  Hastings,  made  long  before  his  death,  and  indicating, 
therefore,  a  common  usage  of  the  time,  (and  this  so  late  as  the  reign  of 
Richard  III)  gives  some  idea  of  the  wealth  realized  from  the  source  last 


THE    PAPAL    ARMY    IN    ENGLAND.  25 

an  open  sluice  through  which  a  steady  golden  stream 
poured  into  the  monastic  treasury. 

Of  the  extent  and  magnificence  of  their  establishments, 
and  their  sumptuous  style  of  living,  we  have  a  sufficient 
index  in  the  fact,  that  theyjDften  entertained  the  sovereign 
with  his  whole  retinue  when  on  a  ro3'al  progress,  and  that 
Parliaments  and  State  Councils  were  sometimes  held  in 
their  spacious  halls.  We  must  not  fancy  the  English 
monastery  as  a  gloomy,  isolated  residence,  where  emaciated 
anchorites  wept  and  fasted,  and  prayed  their  lives  away  in 
holy  conflict  with  sin  and  Satan.  No  more  cheerful  and 
imposing  sight  could  meet  the  traveler's  eye  than  the 
stately  Abbey,  with  its  church  of  costliest  architecture,  its 
abbatial  palace,  its  cloisters,  dormitories,  stables,  and  nu- 
merous offices,  its  bowling-allies,  fishponds,  walks  and  gar- 
dens, all  enclosed  by  the  embattled  wall  with  its  grand 
sculptured  gates ;  while  outside,  clustered  the  humblo 
dwellings  of  the  dependent  tenantry,  and  the  broad  Abbey 
lands  with  their  beautiful  variety  of  grainfields,  orchards, 
vineyards,  pastures  stocked  with  well-fed  herds,  and  forests 
swarming  with  game,  stretched  beyond  the  limit  of  the 

named.  After  other  specifications,  he  bequeaths  to  ten  conventual  estab- 
lishments, property  of  various  kinds,  amounting  in  value  to  not  less  than 
fifty  thousand  dollars  of  our  time,  on  condition  of  a  perpetual  yearly  ser- 
vice "  for  tho  sowles  of  me  and  my  wife,  myn  ancestors,  and  all  Christian 
Eowles  ;"  to  be  performed  "  solemnly  with  note,  Placebo  and  Dirige,  and  on 
the  morrow  mass  of  requiem  with  note."  To  ensure  a  handsome  start  on 
the  ascent  to  bliss,  he  further  directs  that,  as  soon  as  notice  of  his  death  is 
received,  "  a  thousand  priests  shall  say  a  thousand  Placebo  and  Dirige 
with  a  thousand  masses  for  my  sowle,  in  oon  day,  if  reasonably  possible." 
Alas  for  the  poor  who  must  begin  at  the  foot  of  the  ladder,  aided  only  by  the 
frtray  provision  "  for  all  Christian  sowles  !"  How  hardly  shall  they  that 
have  nut  riches,  enter  the  kingdom  of  heaven  ! — so  reads  this  Romish 
gospel. 

2 


26  THE    ENGLISH   BIBLE. 

eje.*  Within  these  little  territories  the  Abbots  reigned 
as  sovereign  princes,  coined  their  own  money,  decided  at 
their  tribunals  all  civil  and  criminal  as  well  as  ecclesiasti- 
cal cases,  and  exercised  the  power  of  life  and  death. 

The  Abbey  kitchen,  cellars,  and  refectory,  bore  wit- 
ness to  the  care  bestowed  on  the  well-being  of  its  holy  in- 
mates. They  did  full  justice  to  the  bountiful  provision 
thus  made  for  their  growth  and  edification.  The  Abbey 
cook  was  in  great  odor  of  sanctity  among  his  brethren. 
The  historian  of  Croyland  Abbey  gratefully  records  the 
pious  disposition  of  Brother  Lawrence  Chateres,  cook  of 
that  monastery,  who,  "  animated  by  the  love  of  God  and 
zeal  for  religion,"  had  given  forty  pounds  for  the  recreation 
of  the  convent  with  the  milk  of  almonds  on  fish-days.  By 
the  help  of  this  nourishing  little  delicacy,  "  served,"  by 
direction  of  the  authorities,  "  with  the  finest  bread  and 
best  honey,"  the  brethren  might  hope  to  sustain  those 
trying  Fridays,  when  the  bill  of  fare  only  numbered  from 
ten  to  twenty  dishes.     Well  might  the  old  ballad  sing  : 

"  0  the  monks  o'  Melrose  made  gade  kale 
On  Friday,  when  they  fasted!" 

Truly,  it  was  something  of  a  chasm  which  separated 
these  monks  from  those  which  Anthony,  ten  centuries  be- 
fore, gathered  around  him  in  the  deserts  of  Upper  Egypt. 

Their  profligacy  was  equal  to  their  luxury.  Those  hells 
of  vice,  uncovered  in  the  monasteries  by  the  commission- 
ers of  Henry  YIII.  in  the  sixteenth  century,  were  not  the 
growth  of  that  age  alone.  Such  as  they  were  then,  they 
were  two  centuries  before,  and  the  cry  that  went  up  from 

*  The  lands  of  Fountains'  xVbbey  extended  thirty  miles  without  inter- 
ruption. 


THE    PAPAL    ARMY    IN    ExXGLAND.  27 

them  to  the  ear  of  heaven,  was  like  that  of  Sodom  and 
Gomorrah. 

These  establishments,  with  all  their  accumulations  of 
property  and  -influence,  were  subject  to  no  juri8diction 
"within  the  realm.  Formerly,  they  had  been  amenable  to 
the  bishops  of  the  diocese  in  which  they  were  located. 
But  this  did  not  suit  the  policy  of  the  Romish  Pontiif ; 
whose  power  and  gains  were  best  promoted,  by  keeping  the 
different  divisions  of  his  army  quite  distinct  from  each 
other,  united  in  nothing  but  their  common  opposition  to 
the  civil  government,  and  their  common  dependence  on 
himself.  He  had,  therefore,  exempted  the  monasteries, 
one  by  one,  from  subjection  to  episcopal  authority,  and 
made  them  directly  answerable  to  himself.  The  monks  at 
first  rejoiced  at  their  escape  from  the  bishops ;  bu^t  soon 
found  that  they  had  exchanged  their  tyranny  for  that  of 
a  harder  master.  Their  interior  affairs  were  now  under 
the  Pontiff's  immediate  cognizance  and  direction;  and 
neither  service  nor  money  could  be  denied  to  a  superior, 
from  whom  so  much  was  to  be  hoped  and  feared. 

In  some  respects  the  Monks  were,  without  doubt,  public 
benefactors.  The  Abbey  lands  were  the  best  cultivated  in 
England ;  and  furnished  an  example  of  good  husbandry, 
which,  in  the  course  of  time,  imparted  a  stimulus  to  the 
agricultural  interests  of  the  whole  country.  But  it  takes 
free  and  hopeful  men  to  be  benefited  by  such  an  example; 
and  at  this  period,  the  burden  of  political  and  clerical  op- 
pression lay  like  an  incubus  on  the  capacities  of  the  people. 
Father  Oberlin,  the  good  Swiss  pastor,  could  change  his 
rocky  Alpine  valley  into  a  paradise  as  if  by  miracle.  It 
was  indeed  by  a  miracle,  such  as  Monk  never  wrought, — 
the  transformation  of  the  dull  boors  of  the  valley  into 
beings  who  had  something  to  love,  and  something  to  live  for. 


28  THE    ENGLISH    BIBLE. 

The  hospitality  and  charity  of  the  Mouks  has  also  been 
celebrated.  Let  full  justice  be  done  them  in  these  respects. 
Yet  at  a  time  when  travelers  were  as  scarce  as  diamonds, 
the  tax  on  their  hospitality  could  not  have  been  very  heavy  ; 
and  the  jovial  brethren  no  doubt  regarded  the  news  brought 
by  the  visiter  from  distant  parts,  as  payment  in  full  for 
his  three  days'  food  and  lodging.  Their  charity  to  the 
poor  was  precisely  such  as  has  always  been  witnessed  in 
connexion  with  the  Romish  Church ;  a  charity  often  libe- 
ral to  prodigality,  but  founded  on  the  degradation  of  the 
masses,  and  the  foster-mother  of  mendicancy  with  its  train 
of  vices  ;  a  charity  which  encourages  the  vicious,  insolent 
and  idle,  but  neglects  the  modest  and  virtuous;  which  feeds 
men  as  it  feeds  brutes,  in  total  disregard  of  their  improve- 
ment as  human  beings. 

The  higher  dignitaries  in  both  these  classes  of  the  clergy, 
by  virtue  of  their  great  temporalities  held  in  feudal  tenure 
from  the  crown,  were  barons  of  the  realm,  and  sat  in  par- 
liament under  the  title  of  "  lords  spiritual,"  taking  prece- 
dence in  rank  of  the  lay  nobles.  In  the  summons  to  the 
barons  of  the  realm  for  a  parliament,  archbishops,  bishops, 
and  abbots  already  headed  the  list.  They  too,  had  their 
fortified  castles,  and  bands  of  armed  retainers,  by  whose 
aid  they  alternately  defied  the  monarch,  chastised  the  inso- 
lence of  the  secular  barons,  silenced  those  "  shoeless  vil- 
lains," the  people,  in  their  disgusting  clamors  for  bread 
and  freedom  ;  or,  in  foreign  lands,  pushed  the  triumphs  of 
the  cross  or  the  quarrels  of  the  Pope  at  the  point  of  the 
sword.*     By  prescriptive  right,  derived  from  times  when 

*  Henry  Spencer,  Bishop  of  Norwich,  was  a  notable  specimen  of  the  mar- 
tial prelate.  When,  in  1381,  the  men  of  Norfolk  rose  against  their  masters 
with  the  demand,  too  far  in  advance  of  their  age  to  be  successful,  for  "  life, 


THE  PAPAL  ARMY  IN    ENGLAND.  29 

the  superior  intelligence  of  the  clergy  gave  them  some 
claim  to  the  distinction,  all  the  high  offices  of  state,  all 
places  of  trust  and  honor  about  the  court,  were  in  the 
hands  of  the  clergy.  In  1371,  the  offices  of  Lord  Chancellor, 
Lord  Treasurer,  Keeper  and  Clerk  of  the  Privy  Seal, 
Master  of  the  Rolls,  Master  in  Chancery,  Chancellor  and 
Chamberlain  of  the  Exchequer,  and  a  multitude  of  inferior 
offices,  were  all  held  by  churchmen. 

These  relations  enabled  them  to  resist  successfully  every 
attempt  to  bring  them  to  a  political  level  with  the  other 
subjects  of  the  realm.  Parliament  could  not  so  much  as  lay 
a  tax  for  the  support  of  government  upon  this  privileged 
class,  nor  try  a  member  of  it  even  for  high  treason. — 
Grants  to  the  crown,  and  all  the  questions  relating  to  the 
clergy,  were  settled  in  their  own  Convocations  or  Ecclesi- 
astical Parliaments,  which  rivaled  the  royal  assembly  in 
state  and  splendor.  Their  episcopal  and  abbatial  courts 
claimed  cognizance  of  all  civil  and  criminal  cases,  in  which 
"clerks,"  that  is  churchmen  of  whatever  grade,  were  con- 
cerned, even  though  the  other  party  were  a  layman ;  of 
tithes,  marriages,  wills  ;  in  short,  of  every  thing  which  it 
could  be  pretended  was  in  the  remotest  way  connected 
with  religion. 

liberty  and  the  pursuit  of  happiness,"  this  zealous  man  of  God  fell  upon  the 
insurgents  at  the  head  of  his  armed  followers,  slew  many,  and  carried  a 
great  number  prisoners  to  his  episcopal  castle.  Then  doffing  his  armor  for 
the  priestly  vestments,  he  hastily  administered  to  them  "  the  last  consola- 
tions of  religion,"  and  sent  them  straight  to  the  gibbet  and  the  block.  Two 
years  after,  he  was  military  leader  in  a  crusade  sent  from  England  to  sup- 
port the  claims  of  Urban  VI.  Being  obliged  to  forego  his  plan  of  attacking 
the  French  territory,  he  turned  in  a  tempest  of  fury  upon  the  friendly  Flem- 
ish town  of  Gravelines,  and  butchered  its  defenceless  inhabitants,  leaving  not 
so  much  as  one  infant  alive ;  then  k  arching  on  to  Dunkirk,  he  left  four 
thousand  Flemings  dead  on  the  field 


so  THE    ENGLISH   BIBLE. 

As  if  this  were  not  enough,  they  maintained  in  full  forco 
the  ancient  right  of  sanctuary^  that  is,  of  harboring  fugi- 
tives from  justice.  Once  within  the  sacred  precincts  of 
church  or  abbey,  they  could  defy  the  law  and  all  its  minis 
ters.  This  usage,  first  intended  as  a  shield  to  the  oppress- 
ed, had  now  become  the  refuge  of  the  vilest  criminals. 
Debtors,  able  but  unwilling  to  pay,  thieves,  assassins,  felons 
of  every  sort,  looked  out  securely  from  under  the  wing  of 
the  church  and  laughed  at  justice.  Thus  protected  through 
the  day,  they  often  issued  from  the  holy  portals  under 
cover  of  night,  to  pursue  their  trade  of  burglary,  arson,  or 
highway  robbery,  not  always  unattended  by  such  as  had  a 
more  permanent  residence  in  that  secure  abode. 

Learning  had,  of  course,  declined  under  these  influences. 
A  clergy  who  were  the  mere  mercenaries  of  a  foreign 
power,  their  revenues  entirely  independent  of  the  will  of 
the  people,  and  whose  very  relations  as  ministers  of  the 
church  furnished  incentives  to  pride,  worldliness,  and  the 
grossest  sensual  indulgence,  could  have  no  motives  to  seek 
a  generous  intellectual  culture. 

But  to  this  was  added  another  element.  One  of  the 
essential  conditions  of  their  power,  was  the  ignorance  and 
moral  debasement  of  the  laity.  For  this  reason,  not  a 
word  of  the  public  services  of  religion  was  allowed  to  be 
given  in  a  tongue  which  the  people  could  understand.  Why 
then  should  they  weary  themselves  in  those  liberal  and 
sacred  studies  for  which  their  oflBce  made  no  demands,  and 
which  would  be  a  hindrance  rather  than  a  help  in  the  path 
of  clerical  promotion  ?  In  some  departments  of  know- 
ledge, they  were  indeed  adopts.  The  clergy  furnished  the 
sharpest  lawyers,  and  the  most  adroit  medical  quacks,  of 
any  class  in  the  kingdom.     But  of  all  that  properly  per- 


THE    PAPAL    ARMY    IN    ENGLAND.  31 

tained  to  the  spiritual  office,  they  were  profoundly  ignorant. 
Multitudes  of  the  parish  priests  could  only  mumble  over 
the  prescribed  sentences  in  their  Latin  Missal  and  Bre- 
viary, like  the'  formula  of  a  charm  or  incantation,  without 
the  remotest  idea  of  its  meaning.  The  Monks,  once  fore- 
most in  learning,  were  in  a  still  worse  condition.  Not 
only  had  they  lost  the  ability  to  read  those  precious  manu- 
scripts, which  lay  entombed  in  the  worm-eaten  chests  of 
the  convent  libraries,  but  the  very  tradition  that  such  lan- 
guages as  the  Hebrew  and  Greek,  or  such  a  book  as  the 
Bible,  ever  had  exist^ce.  If  a  brother,  animated  by  an 
extraordinary  zeal  for  letters,  was  found  copying  in  the 
Scriptorium^  most  likely  it  was  at  the  sacrifice  of  some 
priceless  relic  of  antiquity,  which  had  been  sponged  out  to 
furnish  the  Vandal  scholar  parchment  for  the  absurd  Saint- 
Legend  he  was  ambitious  of  transcribing. 

THE     MENDICANT     FP^IARS. 

It  cannot  be  supposed  that  a  clergy,  such  as  has  been 
described,  much  as  they  might  be  feared,  could  be  general- 
ly popular.  The  common  people  especially,  were  prepared 
by  their  neglect  of  the  duties  of  their  office,  their  insolence 
and  merciless  rapacity,  to  welcome  that  new  fraternity  which 
came  into  existence  early  in  the  thirteenth  century,  and 
which  now  formed  the  most  efficient  corps  of  the  Papal 
army  in  England.  The  followers  of  St.  Francis  had  made 
their  first  appearance  in  the  kingdom  about  one  hundred 
years  before  the  time  of  Wickliffe.  They  were  now  to  be 
found  in  every  lane  and  by-way,  conspicuous  by  the  close- 
shaven  crowu,  unshod  feet,  coarse  brown  frock  and  rope 
girdle,  by  which  they  sought  a  visible  contrast  with  the 
luxurious  Monks  and  Priests  of  the  old  regime. 


32  THE    ENGLISH    BIBLE/ 

The  conception  of  the  Mendicant  Orders  bears  upon  it 
the  unmistakable  stamp  of  genius.  It  sprang  up  in  the 
bosom  of  an  indurated  system,  with  all  the  force  and  fresh- 
ness of  a  new  vitality.  Amidst  the  worldly  luxury,  pomp, 
and  indolence,  which  for  ages  had  characterized  the  Rom- 
ish clergy,  there  was  now  to  reappear  the  affecting  specta- 
cle of  poverty,  humility,  and  active  benevolence  exhibited 
by  Christ  and  his  apostles.  Priest  and  Monk  had  alike 
despised,  neglected  and  oppressed  the  people.  The  Friars 
were  to  devote  themselves  to  the  people.  Instead  of  idly 
withdrawing  into  monasteries,  under  pretence  of  greater 
sanctity,  they  were  to  spread  themselves,  an  army  of  evan- 
gelists, among  all  classes ;  to  seek  out  the  poor  in  the 
highways  and  hedges,  and  offer  them  the  Grospel  on  such 
terms  that  the  hum'blest  might  share  its  blessings.  The 
parish  priests  had  almost  abandoned  preaching  as  a  part 
of  their  vocation,  confining  their  services  to  Mass  and  the 
Confessional.  The  Friars  seized  on  the  neglected  instru- 
ment of  popular  influence,  and  by  it  made  themselves  mas- 
ters of  the  common  mind.  The  priests  had  rendered  them- 
selves odious  by  the  compulsory  exaction  of  tithes.  The 
Friars,  in  return  for  their  self-denying  and  laborious  ser- 
vices, asked  only  such  alms  as  the  charity  and  gratitude  of 
the  faithful  should  bestow  freely ;  while,  by  the  vows  of 
their  order,  they  were  forever  precluded  from  holding  pro- 
perty in  the  soil. 

It  is  not  strange  that  they  should  soon  have  won  the 
entire  confidence  and  affection  of  the  people.  Even  the 
best  and  most  enlightened  men,  who  had  long  groaned  over 
the  vices  and  indolence  of  the  clergy,  hailed  their  advent 
as  the  dawn  of  a  radical  reformation  in  the  church.  They 
found,  too  late,  that  it  was  but  sending  the  locust  to  root 


THE    PAPAL    ARMY    IxN    ENGLAND.  33 

out  the  canker-worm.  What  could  be  expected  of  a  body 
of  men,  armed  by  the  infallible  head  of  the  church  with  an 
unlimited  commission  to  trade  in  sin,  and  responsible  for 
their  lives  and  teachings  to  neither  secular  nor  spiritual 
power  in  the  country  where  they  lived  ?  The  pitiable  igno- 
rance and  credulity  of  the  masses  invited  imposition. 
When  the  barefoot  Friar,  clad  in  his  serge  gown,  and 
weary  with  toiling  over  the  rough  and  miry  ways,  an- 
nounced in  some  neglected  hamlet  that  he  had  come  to  offer 
pardons,  indulgences,  the  redemption  of  their  deceased 
friends  from  purgatory,  and  all  the  precious  wares  of  the 
church,  at  a  price  within  the  reach  of  the  poorest  laborer 
or  beggar,  it  seemed  to  the  deluded  people  like  good  tidings 
of  great  joy.  He  could,  moreover,  by  certain  old  rags, 
pigs'  bones,  rusty  nails,  bits  of  rotten  wood,  and  similar 
rubbish  which  he  carried  about  with  him  under  the  name 
of  relics,  ensure  them  good  crops,  and  fruitful  herds,  and 
faithful  wives,  all  for  a  very  reasonable  consideration.  His 
animated  harangues,  seasoned  with  marvellous  stories,  all  to 
the  honor  and  glory  of  his  Order,  took  their  ears  captive. 
Then  he  was  so  affable,  so  condescending  !  He  was  not 
too  proud  to  sit  down  under  the  thatched  roof,  and  eat 
with  liis  rustic  hosts,  washing  down  the  plain  fare  with 
draughts  from  the  pewter  tankard,  while  his  merry  joke 
and  tale  was  the  best  sauce  of  the  feast.  He  could  expatiate, 
too,  with  great  edification,  on  the  pride,  and  wealth,  and  ex- 
tortion of  the  monks  and  priests,  who  were  lords  of  such 
vast  domains,  and  rioted  in  palaces  on  the  hard  earnings 
of  the  poor.  As  for  him,  he  demanded  nothing.  But 
should  the  worthy  friends  see  fit  to  replenish  his  empty 
wallet  with  such  needfuls  as  they  could  spare  for  the  poor 
brethren,  the  saints  would  assuredly  return  the  pious  gift 
2* 


34  THE    ENGLISH   BIBLE. 

fourfold  into  their  basket  and  store.  As  a  farther  security 
that  such  bounty  should  not  lose  its  reward,  he  carefully 
entered  on  his  tablets  the  name  of  every  one  who  contri- 
buted fish  or  bacon,  poultry,  flax  or  wool,  for  the  commu- 
nity, with  the  promise  that  he  should  be  duly  remembered 
in  their  prayers ;  though,  as  Chaucer,  who  drew  his  pic- 
tures from  the  life,  informs  us,  the  list  was  wiped  out  with- 
out ceremony  as  soon  as  his  back  was  turned  on  the  simple 
donors. 

"  "When  folk  in  church  had  gave  him  what  they  list, 

He  went  his  way,  no  longer  would  he  rest — 

With  scrip  and  tipped  staff,  ytucked  high, 

In  every  house  he  'gan  to  pore  and  pry, 

And  begged  meal  and  cheese,  or  else  corn. 

His  fellow  had  a  staff  ytipped  with  horn, 

A  pair  of  tables,  all  of  ivory, 

A  pointell  ypolished  fetously. 

And  wrote  always  the  names  as  he  stood, 

Of  all  the  folk  that  gave  them  any  good, 

Askance  that  he  would  for  them  pray : 
'  Give  us  a  bushel  wheat,  malt,  or  rye, 
'  A  God's  Kichell,*  or  a  triffle  of  cheese, 
'  Or  else  what  ye  list,  I  may  not  choose,  • 

'  A  God's  halfpenny  or  a  mass  penny, 

*  Or  give  us  of  your  brawn,  if  ye  have  any  ; 
'  A  dagon  of  your  blanket,  deare  dame, — 

•  Our  sister  deare,  lo,  here  I  write  your  name, — 
'  Bacon  or  beef,  or  such  thing  as  ye  find.' 

A  sturdy  harlot  went  hard  aye  behind. 
That  was  their  host's  man,  and  bare  a  sack, 
And  what  men  gave  him,  laid  it  on  his  back. 

*  -A  little  cake. 


THE    PAPAL    ARMY    ilJ^    ENGLAND.  36 

And  when  he  was  out  at  the  door,  anon 
He  plained  away  the  names,  every  one 
That  he  before  had  written  in  his  tables ; 
He  seiTed  them  with  nifHes  and  with  fables." 

This  was  the  most  successful  blow  which  had  ever  yet 
been  struck  for  the  Papacy.  Hitherto,  the  relation  be- 
tween the  clergy  and  people  had  been  such,  as  to  allow  of 
a  wholesome  dislike  of  the  priesthood.  The  faults  of  su- 
periors and  oppressors  are  easily  discerned  by  those  ou 
whom  they  trample ;  and  it  might  be  hoped  that  in  time, 
the  common  mind  would  rise  above  the  delusions  of  a  sys- 
tem, whose  temporal  bondage  was  so  hard  to  bear.  But 
under  this  new  form,  it  wormed  itself  into  the  very  heart 
of  the  people.  It  fell  in  with  all  their  prejudices,  flattered 
their  vanity,  vulgarized  religion  to  their  tastes,  cheapened 
it  to  their  means,  and  bound  them,  heart  and  soul,  to 
their  spiritual  teachers. 

Their  special  commission,  held  directly  from  the  Pope, 
rendering  them  amenable  to  himself  alone,  gave  the  Friars 
a  great  advantage.  Under  this  all-powerful  sanction,  they 
ranged  from  parish  to  parish,  from  diocese  to  diocese,  re- 
gardless of  all  prescriptive  rights,  literally  underselling  all 
competitors,  and  crowding  them  out  of  market.  Crime 
of  every  sort,  secure  of  absolution  in  the  most  private 
manner  and  at  the  cheapest  rate,  increased  with  fearful 
rapidity.  One  bishop  complained,  that  he  had  in  his  diocese 
some  two  thousand  malefactors,  of  whom  not  fourteen  had 
received  absolution  from  the  parish  priests,  who  yet  defied 
punishment,  and  claimed  their  right  to  the  sacraments  on 
the  pretence  of  having  been  absolved  by  the  Friars. 

But  they  were  not  confined  to  the  poor.  Like  the 
Apostle,  but  with  a  very  diflferent  object,  they  became  all 


36  THE    EIvGLlSH    BIBLE. 

things  to  all  nieu.  They  neglected  no  class  of  society ; 
they  had  an  eye  to.  every  source  of  influence.  Many  of 
them  took  high  rank  as  men  of  learning,  according  to  the 
standard  of  the  age.  Even  in  the  Universities,  whose 
prime  object  was  the  education  of  the  secular  clergy,  the 
Friars  gained  an  ascendency  which  threatened  to  convert 
them  into  nurseries  of  their  own  order.  They  increased 
in  numbers  with  unparalleled  rapidity,  and  by  their  holy 
beggary  and  traffic  soon  became  enormously  rich.  Being 
prohibited  the  ownership  of  land,  they  invested  their  funds 
in  magnificent  churches  and  convents,  in  gold  and  silver 
plate,  rich  vestments  and  precious  stones ;  while  the  in- 
terior of  their  sacred  dwellings  witnessed  excesses  not  sur- 
passed by  those  of  the  monastery. 

"  Round  many  a  convent's  blazing  fire 
"  Unhallowed  threads  of  revelry  are  spun  ; 
•'  There  Venus  sits  disguised  like  a  Nun, — 
"  While  Bacchus,  clothed  in  semblance  of  a  Friar. 
"  Pours  out  his  choicest  beverasie. 


"  The  arched  roof,  W'ith  resolute  abuse 

"  Of  its  grave  echoes,  swells  a  choral  cheer 

"  Whose  votive  burden  is — Our  kingdom's  here  !" 

But  they  never  forgot  that  drops  make  the  ocean ;  never 
became  too  proud  to  beg  from  the  poor.  Wickliffe  found 
the  land  swarming  with  them,  a  gross  and  sordid  pack, 
still  maintaining  by  their  low  arts  all  their  power  over  a 
debased  and  cheated  people. 

The  song  of  jolly  Friar  Tuck,  in  Ivanhoe,  givis  a  lively 
picture  both  of  the  popularity   and  the  grossness  of  the 


THE  TAPAL  ARMV  IN  ENGLAND.  37 

Order,  though  the  darkest  shades  are  of  course  omitted  in 
the  portrait : 

"  Tlie  Friar  has  walked  out,  and  where'er  he  has  gone, 
''  The  hind  arfd  its  fatness  is  marked  for  his  own  ; 
"  He  can  roam  whei-e  he  lists,  he  can  stop  when  he  tires 
"  For  every  man's  house  is  the  Barefooted  Friar's. 

"  He's  expected  at  noon,  and  no  wight  till  he  comes 
"  May  profane  the  great  chair  and  the  porridge  of  plums, 
"  For  the  best  of  the  fare,  and  the  seat  by  the  fire, 
"  Is  the  undenied  right  of  the  Barefooted  Friar. 

"  He's  expected  at  night,  and  the  pastry's  made  hot, 
"  They  broach  the  brown  ale,  and  they  fill  the  black  pot ; 
"  And  the  good  wife  would  wish  her  good  man  in  the  mire, 
"  Ere  he  lacked  a  soft  pillow,  the  Barefooted  Fi'iar. 

"  Long  flourish  the  sandal,  the  cord,  and  the  cope, 
"  The  dread  of  the  devil  and  trust  of  the  Popfe  ; 
"  For  to  gather  life's  roses,  unscathed  by  the  briar, 
"  Is  granted  alone  to  the  Barefooted  Friar." 

All  the  resources,  whether  of  property  or  influence,  thus 
accumulated  by  these  immediate  proteges  and  vassals  of 
the  Pope,  was  so  much  capital  to  the  Papacy  itself.  How 
rich  a  veiu  of  material  wealth  had  teen  opened  to  his  Ho- 
liness may  be  judged  of  by  the  fact,  that  in  1299  the  Fran- 
ciscans were  able  to  offer  him  fifty  thousand  ducats  in  gold 
for  permission  to  own  land, — a  petition  which  he  refused, 
however,  after  quietly  pocketing  the  money.  He  would 
allow  them  to  form  no  ties  with  the  country  in  which  they 
lived,  which  might  interfere  with  unconditional  subserviency 
to  himself.  The  increase  of  his  direct  influence  on  all  the 
internal  affairs  of  the  kingdom,  and  over  the  mind  of  the 


do  THE    ENGLISH    BIBLE. 

nation  tlirough  their  means,  was  still  more  important 
The  secular  clergy,  as  we  have  seen,  had  become  his  crea- 
tures ;  the  monasteries,  by  successive  strokes  of  policy 
had  beeu  withdrawn  from  episcopal  jurisdiction,  and  made 
immediately  accountable  to  himself.  But  as  large  land 
proprietors,  it  was  possible  for  exigencies  to  arise  when 
these  orders  of  the  clergy  might  prefer  the  interests  of  the 
country  to  his  own.  The  system  was  made  complete  by 
the  addition  of  a  corps,  exceeding  them  both  in  number, 
who  had  no  dependence  bdt  his  favor,  no  ties  which  could 
interfere  with  unconditional  subserviency  to  himself;  and 
whose  revenues  must  be  the  fruit  of  incessant  activity  in 
imbuing  the  popular  miud  with  attachment  to  the  Papacy. 

The  stimulus  imparted  by  their  success  to  the  whole 
body  of  the  clergy  was,  moreover,  highly  satisfactory.  All 
eyes  were  turned  with  increasing  eagerness  towards  the 
great  dispenser  of  patronage.  Rome  became  more  and 
more  the  central  point  of  interest,  the  grand  mart  of  office, 
the  final  court  of  appeal  to  all  parties,  and  the  papal 
treasury  overflowed  with  the  bribes  of  rival  suitors.  Such 
being  the  result,  the  quarrels  among  his  vassals,  over  the 
division  of  the  spoils  at  home,  did  not  disturb  the  serenity 
of  the  Head  of  the  Church. 

Not  even  yet  had  he  exhausted  his  devices  for  governing 
and  draining  England.  His  special  officers,  located  at  all 
important  points  in  the  kingdom,  held  the  double  office  of 
papal  spies  and  tax-gatherers ;  while  his  legates  and  nun- 
cios, armed  with  plenipotentiary  powers,  held  their  courts 
over  the  heads  of  both  king  and  bishops,  and  decided  mo- 
mentous ecclesiastical  questions,  vitally  affecting  the  in- 
terests of  the  State,  by  the  simple  authority  of  the  suc- 
cessor of  St.  Peter. 


THE    PAPAL    ARMY    IN    ENGLAND.  39 

By  these  various  methods,  the  Pontiff  drew  yearly  from 
England  five  times  the  amount  of  the  whole  royal  reve- 
nue ;*  and  this  was  the  smallest  injury  sustained  by  the 
enslaved  coun$,ry  from  the  unnatural  connection. 

♦  So  stated  in  the  petition  of  the  "  Good  Parliament,"  1376.     Vaughan. 


CHAPTER    III. 


COUNTER-INFLUENCES ;  THEIR  INEFFICIENCY. 

If  now  we  enquire  for  any  counter-influences  at  work 
in  England  in  the  fourteenth  century,  we  shall  find,  at 
several  points,  a  decided  hostility  to  the  encroachments  of 
the  Papacy.  Edward  III.  was  too  spirited  and  ambitious 
a  monarch  to  look  on  patiently,  while  so  large  and  influen- 
tial a  body  of  his  nominal  subjects  disowned  his  authority, 
and  the  Pope  of  Rome  exercised  more  power  in  his  realm, 
and  drew  from  it  far  more  money  than  himself.  But  his 
quarrel  was  not  with  the  religion  of  the  Papacy.  He  was 
jealous,  as  well  he  might  be,  of  the  political  power  and 
the  wealth  of  the  clergy.  It  chafed  hini  sorely  to  see 
papal  legates  and  provisors  running  through  his  kingdom, 
draining  it  of  money,  interfering  with  his  own  govern- 
ment, and  acting  as  spies  to  his  enemies.*  But  there  is 
little  indication  of  any  enlightened,  generous  concern  for 
the  moral  condition  of  his  people,  or  even  for  their  tempo- 

*  During  his  reigu  the  Pajjal  court  was  fixed  at  Avignon,  in  France,  and 
eeven  successive  Pontiffe  were  Frenchmen. 


counter-influences;  their  inefficiency.         41 

ral  welfare.  He  was  always  ready  to  grind  tbem  down  to 
the  last  point  of  endurance,  sparing  neither  their  property 
nor  their  blood,  in  furtherance  of  his  own  ambitious  and 
selfish  projects.'  His  efforts  had  for  their  object  no  real 
reformation  within  the  church,  nor  would  a  living,  spiritual 
Christianity  have  been  welcomed  by  him  more  cordially 
than  by  the  Pope  himself  His  resistance  was,  moreover, 
too  fitful  and  capricious  to  effect  a  permanent  change  even 
in  the  outward  relations  of  England  to  the  Papacy,  being 
ever  the  first  man  to  violate  his  own  laws  when  tempted 
by  some  present  advantage.  Thus  the  odious  system  of 
papal  provisions,*  against  which  such  spirited  laws  were 
enacted  by  his  authority,  remained  nevertheless  in  full 
practical  force,  because  the  king  himself  would  still  appeal 
to  the  Pope  whenever  he  could  not  otherwise  secure  the 
appointment  of  his  favorite  candidate. 

The  same  was  true  of  the  Secular  Barons;  though,  having 
less  to  gain  from  the  Papacy,  these  were,  in  general,  more 
consistent  in  their  opposition  to  its  encroachments.  There 
is  frequently  something  very  imposing,  in  the  tone  and 
bearing  with  which  these  martial  nobles  meet  the  preten- 
sions both  of  the  sovereign  pontiff,  and  of  their  own  des- 
potic monarchs.  Seen  through  the  magnifying  haze  of 
time,  they  rise  before  us  as  the  representatives,  in  an  age 
of  lawless  tyranny,  of  the  great  principles  of  human  free- 
dom. A  closer  view  greatly  diminishes  our  admiration. 
No  king  was  ever  more  ready  than  they  to  defer  to  the 
Pope  as  the  vicegerent  of  God,  when  it  suited  their  own 
purposes.       No  king  ever  ruled  his  subjects  with  a  more 

*  Reversionary  grants  by  the  Pope  to  benefices  not  yet  vacant,  without 
reference  to  the  rights  of  the  native  legal  patrons.  The  sale  of  these  pro- 
visionary  grants  was  a  source  of  large  income  to  the  Papal  Coui't. 


42  THE    ENGLISH    BIBLE. 

iron  hand,  than  did  these  liberty -loving  nobles  their  depen- 
dents and  vassals.  Magna  Cbarta  itself  was  the  fruit  of  a 
coalition,  formed  under  the  sanction  of  Innocent  III.,  be- 
tween the  nobles  and  the  clergy,  for  the  twofold  purpose  of 
protecting  themselves  against  the  despotism  of  King  John, 
and  of  chastising  his  attempt  to  throw  off  the  Papal  yoke.* 
Small  would  have  been  the  gain  to  liberty,  had  not  other 
influences  come  in  to  extend  its  provisions  somewhat  beyond 
the  interests  of  these  "  upper  classes,"  Happily,  John 
was  not  yet  brought  so  low,  but  that  he  could  claim  the 
insertion  of  certain  articles  as  distasteful  to  the  Barons  as 
theirs  were  to  him.  Happily,  they  were  not  so  strong,  but 
that  the  rich  though  despised  tradesmen  of  London  could 
demand  certain  provisions  for  their  class  as  the  price  of 
their  aid.  Even  then,  it  brought  to  the  great  body  of  the 
people  no  hope  of  freedom  or  improvement.  The  laboring 
classes,  i.  e.  the  majority  of  the  English  people,  are  but 
twice  mentioned  in  this  famous  instrument,  and  then  it  is, 
as  Henry  remarks,  "  for  the  benefit  of  their  masters."! 
Even  then  Magna  Charta,  interpreted  by  the  circumstances 
of  the  times,  was  a  guarantee  for  the  perpetual  domination 
of  the  Romish  clergy  in  England.  In  the  nobles  of  the 
fourteenth  century,  we  discover  no  essential  advancement  in 
moral  character  or  breadth  of  views,  beyond  those  of  a 
hundred  years  before.  Their  remonstrances  against  Papal 
oppression  take  no  higher  or  bolder  tone,  nor  would  they 

*  See  an  admirable  analysis  of  the  Great  Charter  in  Henry's  History, 
V9I.  vi.  p.  65. 

t  The  4th  article  provides  against  "  the  waste  of  men  and  goods"  on  the 
estates  of  minors  to  the  detriment  of  the  heir  when  h"b  shall  come  of  age  ; 
the  6th  secures  to  a  "  villain"  his  implements  of  husbandry  against  seizure 
as  payment  of  fines, — a  practice  very  inconvenient  to  those  who  lived  by 
his  labor. 


COUNTER-l-NFLUENCES ;    THEIR    INEFFICIENCY.  43 

have  made  any  greater  figure  in  the  history  of  English 
freedom,  had  they  not  been  immediately  followed  by  the 
labors  of  a  genuine  Reformer. 

If  we  turn  to  the  Universities,  the  sacred  schools  of  those 
times,  in  the  hope  of  finding  some  dawnings  of  a  better 
day,  the  same  disappointment  meets  us  here.  True,  they 
were  marked  by  a  strong  feeling  of  nationality,  and  an  active 
jealousy  of  that  papal  infiuence  which  was  exerted  so  inju- 
riously to  the  interests  of  the  native  clergy.  Their  members 
hated  the  Friars  as  the  emissaries  of  the  Pope,  and  their  own 
chief  rivals.  But  for  liberal  ideas,  sound  learning,  or  de- 
voted piety,  the  academic  halls  of  this  period  are  searched 
in  vain.  It  would  indeed  be  strange,  if  the  nurseries  of 
the  clergy  should  have  surpassed  in  these^-espects  the  de- 
mands of  the  church.  The  speediest  road,  both  to  wealth 
and  clerical  preferment,  was  then  found  in  the  practice  of 
the  civil,  and  especially  the  canon  law ;  *  and  accordingly, 
many  young  candidates  for  the  ministry  spent  their  entire 
term  of  University  study^  in  fitting  themselves  to  become, 
in  a  sense  not  altogether  evangelical,  "  fishers  of  men." — 
The  profession  of  medicine  being  also  very  lucrative,  and 
almost  monopolized  by  churchmen,  large  numbers  of  the 
young  clergy  became  deeply  skilled  iu  the  mystery  of  heal- 
ing as  then  understood — for  instance,  curing  small-pox 
without  scars,  by  wrapping  the  patient  in  "  red  scarlet 
cloth  ;"  or  stopping  epileptic  fits,  by  saying  mass  over  the 
patient  and  causing  his  parents  to  fast.  For  those  of  a 
speculative  tarn,  there  was  the  scholastic  philosophy  with 
its  abstruse  discussions  of  entities  and  non-entities,  sub- 
stances and  accidents,  substantial  forms   and   occult  quali- 

*  The  system  of  Papal  jurisprudence  drawn  from  the  decisions  of  Popes 
aod  Councils. 


44  THE    ENGLISH    BIBLE. 

ties.  The  Universities  could  boast  their  subtle,  sublime 
]vofound,  angelic,  and  seraphic  doctors  of  theology,  who 
could  discuss  through  endless  folios  the  questions :  "  Does 
the  glorified  body  of  Christ  stand  or  sit  in  Heaven  ?  Is  the 
body  of  Ciirist,  which  is  eaten  in  the  sacrament,  dressed  or 
undressed  ?  Were  the  clothes  in  which  Christ  appeared  to 
his  disciples  after  his  resurrection,  real  or  only  apparent  ? 
Was  Christ  the  same  between  his  death  and  resurrection, 
as  before  his  death  and  after  his  resurrection  ?"  Subjects 
even  more  frivolous  and  absurd  engaged  the  attention  of 
the  sharpest  intellects  of  the  times.  Thus,  the  question  : 
"  Whether  a  hog,  taken  to  market  with  a  rope  tied  round 
its  neck  which  is  held  at  the  other  end  by  a  man,  is  carried 
by  the  rope  or  iy  the  man  ?"  was  gravely  argued  by  the 
logicians,  and  declared  insoluble,  the  reasons  on  both  sides 
being  perfectly  balanced.  But  their  disquisitions  were  not 
all  so  innocent.  The  obscene  and  blasphemous  charac- 
ter of  some  of  their  speculations  proves  too  clearly,  that 
the  foulest  moral  impurity  is  quite  compatible  with  childish 
folly. 

Such  had  been  the  general  character  of  these  "  theologi- 
cal seminaries,"  ever  since  the  Bible  had  been  cast  aside  in 
the  spiritual  instruction  of  the  people.  The  decline  of  all 
liberal  and  comprehensive  culture  h!id  kept  pace  with  the 
decline  of  the  study  of  the  Holy  Scriptures.  The  great 
Roger  Bacon  declared,  in  the  preceding  century,  that  among 
the  scholars  of  his  time,  there  were  but  three  or  four  who 
had  any  knowledge  of  Greek  or  Hebrew.  There  was,  how- 
ever, then  to  be  found  occasionally  in  the  Universities  a 
Hible  doctor,  (so  called  in  contempt  of  the  antiquated  and 
unprofitable  direction  of  his  studies,)  though  it  was  diffi- 
cult for  a  teacher  so  far  behind  the  age  to  obtain  the  use 


COUNTER-INFLUENCES  ;    THEIR.    INEFFICIENCY.  45 

of  a  lecture-room,  or  the  command  of  a  regular  Iiour,  or  to 
persuade  a  handful  of  young  men  to  listen  to  his  instruc- 
tions. But  it  was  now  long,  since  one  of  these  fossil-speci- 
mens of  the  past  had  appeared  among  scholars.  Even  a. 
copy  of  the  Latin  Vulgate  was  scarcely  to  be  found  at  the 
Universities.  In  1353,  three  or  four  young  Irish  priests 
came  over  to  England  to  study  divinity ;  but  were  obliged 
to  return  home  "  because  not  a  copy  of  the  Bible  was  to 
be  found  at  Oxford."  The  morals  of  these  schools,  fre- 
quented yearly  by  many  thousands  of  English  youths,  were 
not  a  whit  superior  to  their  learning.  Frequent  allusions 
occur,  in  the  records  of  the  time,  to  the  fearful  preval- 
ence of  the  most  debasing  vices,  among  both  teachers  and 
students. 

In  glancing  along  the  course  of  English  history,  from 
the  Conquest  to  the  middle  of  the  fourteenth  centui-y,  one 
fact  strikes  the  attentive  reader  with  peculiar  force.  During 
that  whole  period,  we  do  not  perceive  the  development  in 
the  life  of  society,  of  a  single  radically  new  idea.  Several 
truly  great  men  had  sat  on  the  English  throne  ;  the  Eng- 
lish Church  had  given  birth  to  scholars,  theologians,  and 
statesmen  of  no  mean  rank.  Nor  was  it  destitute  of  yet 
nobler  names,  shining  with  the  lustre  of  personal  piety  and 
zeal  for  religion,  amidst  the  thick  moral  darkness.  But 
they  all  drift  with  the  powerful  current,  which  set  in  with 
William  I.  and  his  Anglo-Norman  church.  Their  attempts 
to  remedy  existing  evils  are  superficial  and  fragmentary, 
utterly  ineffectual  to  arrest  the  mighty  onward  tide  of 
priestly  domination  and  corruption.  Much  is  vaguely  as- 
serted respecting  the  progress  of  civil  liberty  during  this 
period.  The  courts  of  law  attained,  it  is  said,  a  the<reti- 
cal  perfection  in  the  time  of  Edward  III.  which  has  scarcely 


46  THE   ENGLISH   BIBLE. 

been  surpassed.  But  if  we  look  at  the  actual  condition 
of  the  people  in  the  fourteenth  century,  we  see  little  that 
deserves  the  name  of  progress.  Violence  and  bribery 
every  where  overawed  or  corrupted  justice.  "  There  was 
not,"  we  are  told,  "  so  much  as  one  of  the  king's  ministers 
and  judges  who  did  not  receive  bribes,  and  very  few  who 
did  not  extort  them."*  Perjury  was  a  vice  so  universal, 
that  the  words  of  Scripture  might  have  found  an  almost 
literal  application  to  the  English  people,  from  the  king  to 
the  serf — "All  men  are  liars."  Life  and  property  were 
kept  in  perpetual  insecurity,  by  the  numerous  and  ferocious 
bands  of  robbers  which  roamed  over  the  country,  under 
the  protection  of  powerful  barons,  who  sheltered  them  in 
their  castles,  and  shared  with  them  their  booty.  English- 
men and  Englishwomen  were  still  sold  like  cattle  at  the 
great  fairs.  Grossness  of  manners  characterized  all  ranks, 
and  exhibited  itself  in  the  most  revolting  forms  of  licen- 
tiouscess  among  the  leading  classes.  "  Like  priest,  like 
people,"  was  never  more  fully  verified  than  in  this  portion 
of  English  history.f 

The  recognition  of  the  right  of  burgher  representation, 
in  the  establishment  of  the  House  of  Commons,  has  been 
appealed  to,  as  the  beginning  of  the  England  that  now  is. 
But  what  was  this,  in  reality,  but  a  mere  extension  of  the 
old  idea  that  "  might  makes  right,"  the  recognition  of  a 
new  potency,  in  addition  to  that  of  the  stronger  arm,  viz. :  the 
potency  of  property  ?     A  great  and  glorious  advance  it 

*  Henry  Vol.  viii,  384. 
J"  This  picture  may  seem  too  dark  for  truth  ;  but  the  reader  will  find  it 
fully  borne  out  by  the  histories  of  the  time.  See,  particularly,  Henry's  His- 
tory, vols.  V,  vi,  viii,  and  x.  The  showy  virtues  of  chivalry,  the  portraiture 
of  which,  by  novelists  and  poets,  has  made  this  period  so  dear  to  the  fancy, 
are  by  no  means  inconsistent  with  the  vices  here  depicted. 


counter-influences;  their  inefficiency.         47 

indeed  was,  over  the  reign  of  brute  force  !  But  it  did  not 
spring  from  the  root  of  true  liberty.  The  idea  of  man, 
with  his  inborn,  inalienable  rights — now  the  characteristic 
idea  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  race — had  never  then  dawned  on 
the  English  mind.  When,  in  1381,  a  hundred  thousand 
English  laborers  came  up  to  London,  with  the  humble  re- 
quest that  they  might  become  men,  they  met  in  no  class 
with  less  sympathy  than  among  the  free  commoners. — 
When  Richard  II.  announced  to  parliament,  at  its  next 
session,  that  he  had  revoked  the  charters  of  freedom  with 
which  he  had  deluded  his  poor  subjects,  the  House  of 
Commons  expressed  its  cordial  approbation  of  the  cruel 
fraud,  and  declared  that  they  would  never  give  their  assent 
to  the  abolition  of  serfdom,  "  though  it  were  to  save  them- 
selves from  all  perishing  in  a  day."  It  was  the  House  of 
Commons  too,  who  petitioned  at  a  still  later  period,  that 
serfs  might  not  be  permitted  to  send  tlieir  children  to 
school — "  and  this  for  the  honor  and  glory  of  all  the  free- 
men of  the  realm  !"  And  the  majority  of  Englishmen,  be 
it  remembered,  were  then  serfs,  or  in  a  state  of  civil  disa- 
bility scarcely  above  that  of  absolute  slaves  of  the  soil. 

Allowing,  then,  the  utmost  that  can  reasonably  be 
claimed  for  the  progress  of  freedom,  there  was  as  yet  no 
sign  presaging  England's  glorious  future ;  nothing  to 
which  we  can  look  back  and  say :  Here  was  the  earnest  of 
her  great  destiny  !  In  the  nature  of  the  case,  there  could 
not  be.  Of  civil  liberty  in  its  true  and  noblest  sense — ■ 
that  which  embraces  in  its  protecting  arms  the  whole 
people,  and  allows  full  scope  to  the  development  of  the 
individual  as  a  moral  and  social  being — of  this  the  world 
has  seen  no  example,  where  a  State  religion  holds  the  con- 
sciences of  men  in  blind  subjection  to  the  priesthood,  and 
denies  the  Bible  to  the  common  people. 


CHAPTER  IV. 


THE  BIBLE-APOSTLE. 

Sdch  was  the  gloomy  and  almost  hopeless  scene  present- 
ed by  England,  when  there  appeared  on  the  stage  a  teacher 
of  religion,  whose  whole  life  and  oninions  had  their  source 
in  the  teachings  of  the  Bible. 

How  Wickliife  had  come  into  possession  of  the  Bible,  at 
a  time  when  it  was  an  unknown  book  to  the  great  body  of 
the  clergy  as  well  as  laity,  and  was  wholly  ignored  in  "  the 
course  of  theological  study"  at  Oxford,  history  does  not 
inform  us.  His  first  discovery  of  the  treasure  might  re« 
real  a  religious  experience  no  less  affecting,  a  providential 
guidance  no  less  striking,  than  in  the  case  of  Luther. 
Perchance  the  earnest  student,  urged  by  an  inward  want 
which  found  little  satisfaction  in  the  dry  and  frivolous  dis- 
cussions of  the  lecture-room,  was  rummaging  those  old 
chests  in  the  crypt  of  St.  Mary's,*  when  the  beautifully 
written    and   illuminated  Biblia  Sacra  caught   his  eye. 

*  At  this  time  the  library  of  Oxford  was  kept  in  a  few  chests  under  St. 
Mary's  Church. 


THE    EIELE-APOSTLE.  49 

With  the  first  glance  at  the  strange  words  of  life  and  truth, 
how  would  the  monkish  legends  and  the  musty  disquisi- 
tions of  the  sententiariesbe  forgotten  ;  and  hour  after  hour 
glide  away  uniiotcd  amid  those  dim  old  vaults,  while  the 
enchained  reader  bent,  torch  in  hand,  over  the  page  of 
inspiration  !  This  indeed  is  hut  fancy.  But  it  is  no  mere 
fancy  that  Wickliffe  found  a  Bible  ;  and  that  he  pored  over 
it  so  long  and  earnestly,  and  with  such  fervent  prayer  to 
God,  that  it  became  to  him  the  source  of  a  new  spiritual 
existence,  and  the  guiding  star  of  his  destiny. 

Tliose  beautiful  words  uttered' in  one  of  his  sermons  at 
Lutterworth,  might  fitly  serve  as  the  motto  of  his  whole 
subsequent  career :  "  Oh  Christ !  thy  law  is  hidden  in  the 
sepulchre ;  when  wilt  thou  send  thy  angel  to  remove  the 
stone,  and  show  thy  truth  unto  thy  flock  !" 

It  is  not  within  the  scope  of  this  sketch,  to  portray  in 
detail  WickliflFe's  successive  labors  as  a  Reformer.  These 
will  only  be  briefly  mentioned,  as  indicating  the  path  by 
which  he  was  conducted  to  his  last  and  crowning  work ; 
that  work,  without  which  all  his  previous  efl"orts  would 
have  proved  like  inscriptions  on  the  sand, — the  restora- 
tion OF  TEE  Bible  to  the  common  people. 

opposes    the    mendicants. 

His  first  conflict  was  with  the  Friars,  about  the  year 
1360;  who,  having  succeeded  by  the  help  of  the  Pope  in 
thrusting  themselves  into  important  offices  in  the  Univer- 
sity, were  exerting  a  most  baneful  influence  on  its  students, 
inducing  great  numbers  of  them  to  take  the  vows  of  their 
Order.  He  had  also  had  ample  opportunities  of  observ- 
ing their  abominable  lives,  and  the  arts  by  which  they 
practised  on  the  credulity  of  the  lower  classes.     No  doubt 


50  THE    ENGLiSU    Ci^LC 

chey  had  many  times  before  provoked  his  stern  rebuke. — ' 
Eut  the  long-felt  indignation  now  kindles  into  the  Reform- 
er's zeal.  He  feels  in  himself  the  summons  to  come  forth 
and  do  battle  for  the  truth. 

It  is  interesting  to  note  the  stand-point  of  Wickliffe  in 
this,  the  initiative  step  of  his  career  as  a  reformer.  We 
have  indeed  nothing  from  his  pen  which  can  be  assigned  to 
the  exact  date  of  this  coutroversj^ ;  but  his  writings,  on 
the  same  subject,  which  have  been  preserved,  suflficiently 
indicate  his  position.  Grostete,  Armichanus,  and  other 
great  and  good  men  of  the  English  Church,  had  severely 
censured  the  immoralities  of  the  Friars.  Wickliffe  depicts 
their  atrocious  practices  with  a  still  more  fearless  hand. — 
But  he  goes  much  farther  than  this.  He  strikes  at  the 
root  of  the  evil.  In  his  view,  their  system,  from  the  foun- 
dation upwards,  is  a  lie ;  their  very  existence,  high  treason 
to  Him  who  has  revealed  in  the  Scriptures  the  most  per- 
fect law  of  faith  and  life.  The  Friars  had  put  forth  the 
bold  claim,  that  their  religion  took  precedence,  in  dignity 
and  merit,  of  the  religion  of  Christ.  According  to  them, 
there  had  been  three  dispensations  ;  the  first,  contained  in 
the  Old  Testament,  proceeding  from  the  Father ;  the 
second,  that  of  the  New,  proceeding  from  the  Son  ;  and 
finally,  "  the  everlasting  gospel,"  proclaimed  by  the  angel 
in  the  Apocalypse,  (who  was  no  other  than  St.  Francis,  the 
founder  of  their  Order,)  and  was,  of  course,  to  supersede 
every  other. 

The  reasoning,  by  which  Wickliffe  meets  this  assump- 
tion, shows  how  firmly  he  had  anchored  himself  on  the  re- 
vealed word.  The  religion  of  Christ,  he  argues,  must  be 
most  perfect,  inasmuch  as  its  founder  is  most  perfect.  To 
charge  him  with  not  teaching  the  best  religion,  is  to  charge 


THE    BIBLE-APOSTLE.  51 

him  with  want,  either  of  the  highest  wisdom  or  the  highest 
love.  It  is  also  most  perfect  in  its  rule  of  life,  being 
purely  divine,  without  mixture  of  human  error.  It  is  most 
perfect  in  the' example  which  it  furnishes,  since  Christ  and 
his  apostles  "  be  chief  knights  thereof"  It  is  most  per- 
fect in  the  freedom  of  its  service,  as  it  "  standeth  in  all  love 
and  freedom  of  heart,  bidding  nothing  but  what  is  reason- 
able and  profitable,  and  Christ  himself  declares  :  '  My 
yoke  is  easy  and  my  burden  is  light.'  "  But  the  friars  pre- 
tended, that  their  works  of  merit  far  exceeded  the  de- 
mands of  Christ.  "  Can  any  man,"  asks  WicklifFe,  "more 
than  fulSll  that  first  and  great  command,  to  love  God  with 
all  the  heart,  all  the  mind  and  all  the  strength,  and  his 
neighbor  as  himself?"  Then  cannot  any  man  exceed  the 
d2mands  of  Christ's  religion.  He  therefore  who  pretends 
to  amend  Christ's  religion,  in  fact  denies  it,  and  is  an  apos- 
tate from  the  faith.  But  the  point  of  most  significance, 
for  its  reference  to  his  future  career,  is  found  in  his  con- 
trast between  the  Friar's  religion  and  that  of  Christ,  in  re- 
spect to  the  sanction  under  which  they  respectively  claim 
belief  "  Christ's  religion,"  he  says,  "  is  most  true,  be- 
cause confirmed  of  God  and  not  of  sinful  men  ;  and  because 
by  it  the  Pope  and  every  other  man  must  be  confirmed,  or 
else  he  shall  be  damned  ;  while  the  new  Orders,  being  con- 
firmed only  by  the  Pope,  may  turn  out  to  have  been  con- 
firmed by  a  devil." 

Thus,  in  this  first  attack  on  the  errors  of  the  age,  Wick- 
lifie  struck  the  key-note  of  all  his  future  labors. 

SUMMONED      TO     PARLIAMENT. 

So  bold  an  assault  on  this  powerful  body  could  not  fail 
to  provoke  their  mortal  enmity.     But  it  also  fixed  on  him 


52  THE    ENGLISH    BIBLE. 

the  favorable  attention  of  those  who  were  jealous  of  the 
I^olitical  power  of  the  Pope  and  clergy.  In  1365  he  was 
present  at  the  Parliament,  to  which  Edward  III.  submitted 
the  demand  of  Urban  V.  for  the  renewal  of  King  John's 
tribute;*  and,  from  the  circumstances,  there  can  be  no 
doubt  that  he  had  been  invited  to  London  to  aid  the  resist- 
ing party  by  his  counsels.  That  he  was  one  of  its  acknow- 
ledged leaders,  is  seen  in  the  fact,  that  soon  after  Parlia- 
ment's indignant  repudiation  of  the  papal  claim,  he  was 
challenged  by  name,  in  a  violent  anonymous  tract  on  the 
subject ;  and  that  he  responded  to  the  call,  as  one  whose 
right  and  duty  it  was  to  speak  in  the  case.  From  bis  reply, 
we  learn  the  considerations  which  had  influenced  the  deci- 
sion of  Parliament ;  and  from  their  general  correspondence 
to  his  own  views,  expressed  elsewhere,  it  can  hardly  be 
doubted  that  they  were,  for  the  most  part,  first  borrowed 
from  his  own  mind.  Here,  also,  we  observe  the  same 
reference  to  the  teachings  and  authority  of  the  Scriptures. 
The  Pope,  he  argues,  cannot  claim,  as  the  representative 
of  Christ,  anything  beyond  what  Christ  claimed  for  him- 
self. But  Christ's  office  was  purely  spiritual ;  he  refused 
all  secular  dominion ;  nay,  so  far  was  he  from  exercising 
temporal  lordship,  that  he  subsisted  on  charity,  and  had  not 
where  to  lay  his  head.  He  concludes,  therefore,  that  Eng- 
land owes  no  civil  allegiance  to  the  Pope,  and  may  pro- 
perly repel  his  aggressions  upon  her  temporal  sovereignty. 
On  the  same  general  ground  he  maintained  also,  that  the 
secular   possessions  of  the  clergy  are   held  on  the  same 

*  Urban  required,  not  only  the  thousand  marks  yearly,  as  promised  by 
John,  but  the  payment  of  all  arrearages,  principal  and  interest,  for  the  pre- 
vious thirty  years  ;  in  default  of  which,  the  king  was  cited  to  appear  before 
the  pontiff,  and  answer  for  Ms  conduct  as  to  his  feudal  lord. 


THE    BIBLE-APOSTLE.  53 

tenure  witli  that  of  the  other  subjects  of  the  realm,  and 
are  liable  to  control,  or  if  abused,  to  forfeiture  by  the 
secular  powers  which  first  bestowed  them;  and  in  all  civil 
cases,  the  persons  of  ecclesiastics  should,  as  in  the  case  of 
the  laity,  be  subject  to  the  civil  courts.  In  this,  he  struck 
at  that  grand  prerogative  of  the  clergy,  for  which  Lan- 
franc,  Anselm,  Becket,  and  a  long  line  of  popish  heroes 
had  waged  deadly  warfare  with  their  sovereigns. 

lu  1371,  we  find  his  name  connected  with  a  parliamen- 
tary movement  for  an  additional  reform  in  respect  to  the 
clei'gy,  viz. :  their  exclusion  from  secular  ofl&ces.  Their 
monopoly  of  all  places  of  honor  and  profit  in  the  State, 
joined  to  their  ecclesiastical  power,  had  given  them  a  most 
dangerous  preponderance  in  the  government;  and  yet, 
strange  to  say,  Wickliffe  seems  to  have  been  the  first  who 
questioned  their  perfect  right  to  it.  He  indeed  opposed 
this  admixture  of  the  spiritual  and  temporal  on  purely  re- 
ligious grounds.  Such  a  coalition  was,  in  his  view,  incom- 
patible with  the  New  Testament  conception  of  the  sanc- 
tity and  high  responsibility  of  the  sacred  office.  "  He  that 
warreth,  entangleth  not  himself  with  this  life,"  was  his 
favorite  axiom  on  that  subject.  He  complains  that  "  pre- 
lates and  great  religious  possessioners,  are  so  occupied  in 
heart  about  worldly  lordships  and  pleas  of  business,  that 
no  habit  of  devotion,  of  praying,  of  thoughtfulness  on 
heavenly  things,  on  the  sins  of  their  own  hearts  or  those  of 
other  men,  may  be  preserved;  neither  are  they  found 
studying  and  preaching  the  Gospel,  nor  visiting  and  com- 
forting of  poor  men."  These  are  the  reasons  for  which  he 
concludes,  that  "  neither  prelates  nor  doctors,  priests  nor 
deacons,  should  hold  secular  offices."  But  the  doctrine 
thus  first  suggested  from  a  religious  point  of  view,  was 


54  THE    ENGLISH    BIBLE, 

eagerly  caught  up  by  the  laity  for  its  political  application, 
and  was  made  the  subject  of  one  of  the  most  important 
memorials  submitted  to  Parliament  during  this  eventful 
reign. 

PROFESSOR     AT     OXFORD. 

The  following  year,  he  received  his  degree  of  Doctor  in 
Theology,  and  commenced  a  course  of  divinity  lectures  at 
Oxford.  The  strong  impression  immediately  created  in 
the  University,  is  not  surprising.  By  the  testimony  of 
Knyghton,  a  man  well  qualified  to  judge  in  such  matters, 
and  withal  a  bitter  opponent  of  Wickliffe's  doctrines,  he 
was  "  as  a  theologian,  the  most  eminent  of  his  time;  in 
philosophy,  second  to  none ;  as  a  schoolman,  incompara- 
ble." And  again  :  "  No  man  excelled  him  in  the  strength 
and  number  of  his  arguments  ;  and  he  excelled  all  men  in 
the  irresistible  power  of  his  eloquence."  Walden,  another 
of  his  inveterate  enemies,  confessed  in  a  letter  to  Pope 
Martin  V.,  "  that  he  had  often  stood  amazed  beyond 
ineasure,  at  the  excellence  of  his  learning,  the  boldness  of 
bis  assertions,  the  exactness  of  his  authorities,  and  the 
strength  of  his  arguments."  But  his  mastery  of  scholas- 
tic lore  was  not  the  secret  of  his  power.  It  was  the  living 
influence  of  a  spirit,  which,  having  drunk  deeply  at  the  foun- 
tain of  Eternal  Truth,  yearned  to  lead  others  thither  also. 
Casting  aside  the  absurd  speculations  and  sophistries  which 
they  had  been  wont  to  hear  from  the  Professor's  chair,  he 
reasoned  with  his  pupils  on  such  themes  as  the  being,  na- 
ture, and  attributes  of  God  ;  the  immortality  of  the  soul, 
its  faculties  and  affections  ;  the  essential  nature  of  sin  and 
of  holiness.  Nor  did  he  content  himself  with  abstract 
truth.  In  the  lecture-room,  he  was  still  the  practical  re- 
former.    Thus  from  the  consideration  of  the  nature  of  sin, 


THE    BIBLE-APOSTLE.  55 

he  proceeds  to  the  conclusion,  that  the  distinction  between 
mortal  and  venial  sin,  "  about  which  the  prelates  babble 
so  much,"  is  p,  mere  priestly  contrivance  for  making  gain  ; 
that  the  doctrine  of  priestly  absolution  and  indulgence  is 
an  impious  invasion  of  the  prerogatives  of  God,  who  is 
alone  able  to  forgive  sin.  The  great  churchmen  who  were 
so  free  with  their  dispensations,  were,  in  his  bold  language, 
"  blasphemers  of  the  wisdom  of  God,  pretending  in  their 
avarice  and  folly,  to  understand  what  they  know  not ;  sen- 
sual simonists,  who  chatter  on  the  subject  of  grace  as  if  it 
were  something  to  be  bought  and  sold  like  an  ox  or  an  ass." 
Saint-worship  had  at  this  time  almost  supplanted  the  wor- 
ship of  God,  and  had  substituted,  for  the  one  Mediator,  a 
countless  army  of  intercessors  in  the  Saints  of  the  Romish 
Calendar.*  The  following  extract  shows  how  Wicklftfe, 
even  thus  early  in  his  public  career,  had  risen  above  the 
superstitions  of  his  age  :  "  Whoever  entreats  a  saint,  should 
direct   his   prayer  to   Christ  as   God,  not  to  the  special 

*  A  striking  exemplification  of  this  tendency  is  seen  in  the  case  of  Thomas 
Becket,  that  bold,  bad  man,  who  had  been  canonized  by  the  Romish  Church 
as  a  martyr,  and  thereafter  reigned  for  centuries  as  the  cTiicf  English  Saint. 
His  shrine  in  Canterbury  Cathedral  was  enriched  with  offerings  of  astonish- 
ing magnificence  and  value,  and  every  fifty  j-ears  a  jubilee  in  his  honor 
drew  together  an  innumerable  company  of  pilgrims.  At  the  fifth  jubilee, 
in  1420,  the  concourse  is  said  to  have  amounted  to  100,000  persons.  "  The 
devotion  towards  him  bad  quite  effaced  in  that  place  the  adoration  of  the 
Deity  :  nay,  even  that  of  the  Virgin.  At  God's  altar,  for  instance,  there 
were  offered  in  one  year  three  pounds,  two  shillings  and  sixpence ;  at  tho 
Virgin's,  sixty-three  pounds,  five  shillings  and  sixpence ;  at  St.  Thomas', 
eight  hundred  and  thirty-two  pounds,  twelve  shillings  and  threepence.  But 
the  next  year  the  disproportion  was  still  greater:  there  was  not  a  penny 
offered  at  God's  altar;  the  Virgin's  gained  only  four  pounds,  one  shilling 
and  eightpence ;  but  St.  Thomas  had  got  for  his  share  nine  hundred  and 
fifty-four  pounds,  six  shillings  and  threepence."  Hume's  England  quoted 
from  ed.  1796,  in  E7ig.  Reformers,  vol.  i,  p.  52. 


6d  THE   ENGLISH   BIBLE. 

Saint,  but  to  Christ.  Nor  doth  the  celebration  or  festival 
of  a  saint  avail  anything,  except  in  so  far  as  it  may  tend 
to  magnify  Christ,  inciting  us  to  honor  him,  and  increasing 
our  love  to  him.  If  there  be  any  celebration  in  honor  of 
the  saints,  which  is  not  kept  within  these  limits,  it  is  to 
be  ascribed,  without  doubt,  to  cupidity,  or  some  other  evil 
motive.  Hence,  not  a  few  think  it  would  be  well  for  the 
Church,  if  all  festivals  of  that  nature  were  abolished,  and 
those  only  retained  which  have  respect  immediately  to 
Christ.  For  then,  they  say,  the  memory  of  Christ  would 
be  kept  more  freshly  in  the  mind,  and  the  devotions  of  the 
common  people  would  not  be  unduly  distributed  among 

the  members  of  Christ For  the  Scriptures  assure  us 

that  Christ  is  the  Mediator  between  God  and  man."  Free- 
di)m  of  religious  opinion,  and  the  right  of  private  judgment, 
are  distinctly  vindicated  in  these  lectures.  "  Christ," 
says  he,  "  wished  his  law  to  be  observed  willingly,  freely, 
that  in  such  obedience  men  might  find  happiness.  Hence 
he  appointed  no  civil  punishment  to  he  inflicted  on  tro.ns- 
gressors  of  Ids  commandments^  but  left  them  to  a  punish- 
ment more  severe,  that  would  come  after  the  day  of  judg- 
ment."— Human  tradition  he  set  aside  as  of  no  account  in 
matters  of  religion.  "  If  there  be  any  truth,"  he  says,  "  it 
is  in  the  Scripture ;  and  there  is  no  triith  to  be  found  in 
the  schools,  that  may  not  be  found  in  more  excellence  in 
the  Bible." 

Even  those  who  were  attached  to  the  person  and  opinions 
of  Wicklifie,  were  alarmed  at  his  boldness.  They  begged 
him  to  remember,  when  thus  exposing  himself  to  the  wrath 
of  the  great  "  satraps  of  the  church,"  that  his  appeal  to 
the  Scriptures  for  the  truth  of  his  views  would  be  of  little 
avail,  in  a  time  when  the  Scriptures  themselves  were  of  no 


THE    BIBLE-APOSTLE.  57 

authority.  "  Without  doubt,"  he  replied,  "what  you  say 
is  true.  The  chief  cause  of  the  existing  state  of  things  is 
our  want  of  faith  in  the  Holy  Scriptures.  We  do  not  sin- 
cerely believe  in  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  or  we  should 
abide  by  the  authority  of  his  word,  especially  of  the  Evan- 
gelists, as  of  infinitely  greater  weight  than  every  other. 
It  is  the  will  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  that  the  books  of  the  Old 
and  New  Law  should  be  read  and  studied,  as  the  one  suf- 
ficient source  of  instruction ;  and  that  men  should  not  be 
taken  up  with  other  books,  which,  true  as  they  may  be,  and 
even  coutaiuing  Scripture  truth,  are  not  to  be  confided  in 
without  caution  and  limitation.  Hence  Augustine  often 
enjoins  it  on  his  readers,  not  to  place  any  faith  in  his  word 
or  writings,  except  so  far  as  they  have  their  foundation  in 
Scripture.  Of  course  we  should  judge  thus  of  the  writ- 
ings of  other  holy  doctors ;  much  more  of  the  writ- 
ings of  the  Roman  Church  and  her  doctors,  in  these 
later  times.  If  we  follow  this  rule,  the  Scriptures  will 
be  held  in  becoming  reverence.  The  papal  bulls  will 
be  superseded,  as  they  ought  to  be.  The  veneration  of 
men  for  the  laws  of  the  papacy,  as  well  as  for  the  opinions 
of  our  modern  doctors,  which,  since  the  loosing  of  Satan, 
they  have  been  so  free  to  promulgate,  will  be  restrained 
within  due  limits.  What  concex'u  have  the  faithful  with 
writings  of  this  sort,  except  as  they  are  honestly  deduced 
from  the  fountain  of  Scripture  ?  By  such  a  course,  we 
can  not  only  reduce  the  mandates  of  popes  and  prelates  to 
their  proper  place,  but  the  errors  of  these  new  religions 
might  be  corrected,  and  the  worship  of  Christ  well  purified 
and  exalted." 

Such  were  the   doctrines — and  what  other  than  these 

were  "  the  glorious  doctrines  of  the  Reformation  ?" — which 

3* 


58  THE    ENGLISH    BIBLE. 

Wickliffe,  two  centuries  before  Luther,  taught  openly  in 
the  halls  of  Oxford.  Here  he  strove  to  raise  up,  from  the 
flower  of  the  rising  clergy,  a  corps  of  devoted  spirits  who 
should  be  prepared,  in  the  conflict  which  he  foresaw  as  in- 
evitable, to  do  battle  for  the  truth.  The  high  moral  en- 
thusiasm which  inspired  words  like  the  following,  must 
have  been  like  an  enkindling  flame  to  their  young  hearts : 
"All  christians,"  thus  he  addresses  them,  "  should  be  the 
soldiers  of  Christ.  But  it  is  plain  that  many  are  charge- 
able with  great  neglect  of  this  duty ;  being  prevented  by 
fear  of  the  loss  of  temporal  goods  and  worldly  friendships, 
and  apprehensive  about  life  and  fortune,  from  faithfully 
setting  forth  the  cause  of  God,  from  standing  manfully  in 
its  defence,  and  if  need  be,  from  sufiering  death  in  its  be- 
half. From  the  like  source  comes  that  subterfuge  of  Satan, 
argued  by  some  of  our  modern  hypocrites,  that  it  cannot 
be  a  duty  now,  as  in  the  primitive  church,  to  sufiier  mar- 
tyrdom, since  in  our  time  the  great  majority  of  men  being 
believers,  there  are  none  to  persecute  Christ  to  the  death 
in  his  members.  But  this  is,  without  doubt,  a  device  of 
•  Satan  to  shield  sin.  For  the  believer,  in  maintaining  the 
law  of  Christ,  should  be  prepared,  as  his  soldier,  to  endure 
all  things  at  the  hands  of  the  satraps  of  this  world  ;  de- 
claring boldly  to  Pope  and  Cardinals,  to  Bishops  and  Pre- 
lates, how  unjustly,  according  to  the  teaching  of  the  Gos- 
pel, they  serve  God  in  their  offices,  subjecting  those  com- 
mitted to  their  care  to  great  injury  and  peril,  such  as 
must  bring  on  them  speedy  destruction.  All  this  applies, 
indeed,  to  temporal  lords,  but  not  in  so  great  a  degree  as 
to  the  clergy ;  for  as  the  abomination  of  desolation  begins 
with  a  perverted  clergy,  so  the  consolation  begins  with  a 
converted  clergy.     Hence  we  Christians   need   not  visit 


THE    EIBLE-APOSTLE.  59 

pagans  to  convert  them,  by  enduring  martyrdom  in  their 
behalf;  we  have  only  to  declare  with  constancy  the  word 
of  God  before  C;x;.sarean  Prelates,  and  straigkttvay  the 
Jloiver  of  martyrdoin  icill  be  ready  to  our  hand  !'''' 

Wickliffe  did  not  think  it  sufficient  to  sow  the  good  seed 
among  the  clergy  alone.  While  engaged  in  his  duties  as 
Professor,  he  preached  on  the  Sabbath  to  promiscuous 
auditories,  in  the  mother  tongue,  the  same  great  truths 
which  he  taught  to  his  students  during  the  week ;  and  in 
the  intervals  of  academic  duty,  he  gave  himself  to  the  work 
which  he  loved  above  all  others — that  of  Christian  preacher 
and  pastor,  in  the  rectory  of  Fyllingham.  More  than 
three  hundred  of  his  pastoral  sermons,  more  or  less  com- 
plete, remain  as  witnesses  of  his  zeal  and  fidelity  as  a  reli- 
gious teacher  of  the  common  people,  and  not  less  of  tlie 
evangelical  purity  of  his  doctrines. 

Thus  passed  two  laborious,  but  peaceful,  years  of  Wick- 
lifFe's  life.  In  favor  with  the  court,  for  the  stand  which  he 
had  taken  against  the  Pope,  and  with  the  university,  for 
his  zeal  against  tlie  friars  ;  honored  for  his  genius,  his 
learning,  and  his  virtuous  life,  he  was  at  this  time  re- 
garded as  the  chief  light  and  ornament  of  Oxford.  Thus, 
in  the  providence  of  God,  time  was  afforded  for  his  princi- 
ples to  become  known  and  to  take  root  in  many  minds.-  — 
We  now  turn  a  new  leaf  in  his  history. 


CHAPTER  V. 


THE  POPE  AND  BISHOPS  IN  THE  FIELD. 

In  1372,  a  royal  commission  had  been  sent  to  Avignon, 
to  remonstrate  with  the  Pope  against  the  sale  of  English 
benefices,  -which  was  still  prosecuted  on  the  largest  scale. 
When  the  embassy  returned  without  having  accomplished 
any  thing,  and  Parliament  resolved  to  repeat  the  attempt 
more  vigorously,  Wickliffe  was  summoned  by  royal  authority 
from  Oxford,  to  join  the  new  commission.  That  he  should 
have  been  selected  for  such  a  purpose,  is  a  striking  proof 
of  the  weight  attached  to  his  opinions  and  personal  char- 
acter. But  this  second  effort  resulted  no  better  than  the 
first.  After  two  years  spent  in  wearisome  and  fruitless 
negotiations,  Wickliffe  returned  to  England,  thoroughly 
disgusted  with  the  duplicity  and  corruption  of  the  Papal 
court,*  and  fully  convinced  that  no  reformation  was  to  be 

*  Wickliffe  and  his  associates  were  not  allowed  to  proceed  to  Avignon,  but 
were  met  by  the  papal  commissioners  at  Bruges.  In  the  following  letter  of 
Petrarch,  written  from  Avignon  while  it  was  the  seat  of  the  pap:il  court,  wo 
may  find  a  sufficient  reason,  why  the  sturdy  assailant  of  thev^ces  of  the 
clergy  should  not  have  be'en  aUowsi  a  nearer  approach  to  his  Holiness.— 


THE    POPE    AND    BISHOPS    IN    THE    FIELD.  bl 

hoped  for  from  this  quarter;  that  if  England  wished  to 
save  her  civil  and  religious  liberties  from  swift  and  utter 
destruction,  she  must  look  for  rescue  elsewhere  than  to 
the  Head  of  tbe  Church.  His  bold  exposures  and  appeals 
were,  without  doubt,  the  moving  spring  of  those  energetic 
measures  of  reform  in  the  House  of  Commons,  which  fol- 
lowed his  return  from  Bruges. 

But  they  had  other  results.  A  few  months  after  his 
return,  (early  in  February,  1377,)  the  ecclesiastical  par- 
liament held  its  session  in  London  ;  and  one  of  its  first  mat- 
ters of  business  was  to  receive  accusations  against  John 
Wickliffe,  "  as  a  person  holding  and  promulgating  many 
erroneous  and  heretical  opinions."  The  nineteenth  of  the 
Bame  month  was  fixed  on  for  his  trial,  and  a  summons 
dispatched  to  Oxford  requiring  his  presence  at  the  time 
and  place  appointed.  To  us,  who  look  back  upon  this 
movement  through  the  subsequent  developments  of  his- 
tory, it  seems  an  event  of  no  little  interest  and  importance. 
It  was  the  first  war-cry  of  the  enemy ;  the  signal  for  that 
battle,  which  was  to  bathe  the  soil  of  England  with  the 
blood  of  her  noblest  sons  and  daughters,  and  was  never  to 
cease,  till  the  Bible  and  its  principles  should  become  tri- 
umphant over  the  hosts  of  darkness  and  error. 

"  You  imagine,"  says  he,  "  that  the  city  of  Arignon  is  the  same  now  as  when 
you  resided  in  it.  No !  it  is  quite  different.  True,  it  was  then  the  worst 
and  vilest  place  oh  earth  ;  but  it  is  now  a  terrestrial  hell,  a  residence  of 
fiends  and  devils,  a  receptacle  of  all  that  is  most  wicked  and  abominable. 
What  I  tell  you  is  not  from  hearsay,  but  from  my  own  knowledge  and  ex- 
perience. In  this  city  there  is  no  piety,  no  reverence  or  fear  of  God,  no 
faith  or  charity,  nothing  that  is  holy,  just,  equitable,  or  humane.  Why 
should  I  speak  of  truth,  when  not  only  the  houses,  palaces,  courts,  churches, 
and  the  thrones  of  Popes  and  Cardinals,  but  the  very  earth  and  air,  seem  to 
teem  with  lies  1  A  future  state — heaven,  hell,  and  judgment — ai'e  openly 
turned  into  ridicule,  aa  childish  fables  " — Henry's  History. 


G2  THE    ENGLISH    BIBLE. 

WicklifFe  did  not  sliriuk  from  the  conflict,  whicli  he 
must  have  long  foreseen.  He  immediately  came  down  to 
London,  prepared  to  meet  the  charges  of  his  enemies  with 
the  weapons  of  Scripture  truth.  But  it  was  well  under- 
stood, that  these  were  of  little  account  in  the  "  hoi}-  convo- 
cation" before  which  he  was  to  answer  ;  and  two  of  his 
powerful  court  friends — John,  Duke  of  Lancaster,  fourth 
son  of  Edward  III.,  and  Percy,  Earl  Marshal  of  England — 
determined  to  accompany  him,  and  see  that  he  had  fair 
play.  When  we  remember  the  unlimited  power  of  this 
high  court  in  matters  of  religion,  th~"e  unscrupulous  char- 
acter of  its  members,  and  that  Wickliffe  had  assailed  them  in 
interests  vital  to  their  very  existence,  this  will  not  seem 
an  unnecessary  or  injudicious  kindness. 

The  nineteenth 'of  February  came.  At  an  early  hour, 
the  immense  interior  of  old  St.  Paul's  was  densely  filled 
with  prelates,  priests  and  citizens ;  while  a  noisy,  heaving, 
struggling  crowd  blackened  the  surrounding  area.  Court- 
ney, Bishop  of  Loudon,  seated  on  the  magnificent  episcopal 
throne,  and  surrounded  by  robed  and  mitred  dignitaries, 
smiled  in  conscious  power  and  anticipated  triumph.  Would 
Wicklifie  venture  to  appear  ?  Or  would  he  flee,  and  hide 
Jiimself  from  the  vengeance  he  had  provoked  ?  In  either 
case,  he  was  a  doomed  man.  What  then  must  have  been 
the  prelate's  surprise  and  rage,  when  the  opening  crowd 
disclosed  the  apostolic  figure  of  Wicklifi"e,  robed  in  his 
simple  college  gown,  and  leaning  on  his  peaceful  white 
stafi*;  between  the  martial  forms  of  Lancaster  and  Percy ! 
Forgetting  all  prudence  and  propriety,  he  started  angrily 
from  his  seat,  and  addressed  the  two  noblemen  in  a  tone 
of  insolent  rebuke,  such  as  peers  and  soldiei's  are  not  wont 
to  endure  patiently.     Their  reply  was  in  a  spirit  no  less 


THE    POPE    AND    BISHOPS    IN    THE    FIELD,  63 

Iiauglity  ;  and  the  fierce  colloquy  ended  in  a  tumult  which 
broke  up  the  meeting,  and  the  innocent  occasion  of  the 
uproar  quietly  withdrew,  without  having  been  asked  a 
question,  or  uttered  a  word. 

But  his  enemies  were  not  to  be  thus  baffled.     They  now 
determined  to  invest  their  proceedings  with  an  authority 
to  which  all  must  bow,  viz. :  that  of  the  Pope  himself — 
His  Holiness  gave  ready  ear  to  their  application.     In  the 
June  following  the  abortive  meeting  at  St.  Paul's,  no   less 
than  five   bulls  were  sent  from  Avignon   to   England,  all 
having  for  their  object  the  apprehension  of  Wickliflfe,  and 
his  delivery  to   the  ecclesiastical   power.       One  was   ad- 
dressed to  the  King,  three  to  the  Archbishop  of  Canter- 
bury and  the  Bishup  of  London,  and  one  to  the  University 
of  Oxford.     The  purport  of  all  was  the  same.     The   Head 
of  the  Church  deplores  the  defection  of  England  from  the 
true  way,  made  known   to  him  by   persons  of  credit,  so 
that  she  who  was  once  the  defender  of  the   faith   has  be- 
come the  nurse  of  heresy.     This  sad  change  is  ascribed 
chiefly  to   "  the  labors  of  John  WicklifFe,  Master  in   Di- 
vinity,   more   properly  Master   in    Error,   who    had  pro- 
ceeded to  a  degree  of  madness   so   detestable,  as  not  to 
fear  to  assert,  dogmatize,  and  publicly  teach  opinions  the 
most   false    and    erroneous,    contrary    to    the    faith,    and 
tending  to  the  entire  subversion  of  the  church."     It  is  en- 
joined, therefore,  that  if,  on  enquiry,  these  charges  prove 
to  be  well  founded,  said  Wickliflfe  be  committed  to  prison, 
and  kept  in    sure    custody   till   he    shall   have   answered 
to    the    accusation,    and    judgment    be    received    thereon 
from  the  Holy  See.     The  Bishops  are  exhorted  to  use  all 
diligence  to  guard  the  King,  the  Prince  of  Wales,  the  no- 
bility, and   royal  councillors  from  the  infection  of    these 


64  THE    ENGLISH    BIBLE. 

pestilent  errors.  The  King  is  called  on  to  sustain  the 
authority  of  the  clergy,  in  doing  their  duty  in  the  execu- 
tion of  these  bulls.  The  University  is  summoned,  by  virtue 
of  the  obedience  due  to  the  apostolic  letters,  and  on  pain 
of  losing  all  graces,  indulgences,  and  privileges  granted 
to  it  by  the  Holy  See,  to  deliver  up  the  person  of  John 
WickliflFe,  and  of  all  others  embracing  his  errors,  into  the 
custody  of  the  prelates  commissioned  by  the  Pontiff  for 
that  purpose. 

Thus  terrible  to  the  kingdom  of  darkness,  is  a  man  who 
gives  fearless  utterance  to  the  truth  ! 

The  death  of  Edward  III.,  the  same  month  in  which 
these  formidable  instruments  were  prepared  at  Avignon, 
and  the  reestablishraent  of  Lancaster's  power  on  the  acces- 
sion of  the  youthful  Richard  II.,  induced  the  prelates  to 
suspend  their  vengeance  for  a  time  ;  so  that  the  existence 
of  these  bulls  was  known  to  none  but  themselves,  until 
the  following  January.  Meantime  Wickliffe  did  not  fail 
to  give  them  abundant  occasion,  to  "  nurse  their  wrath  and 
keep  it  warm,"  against  the  favorable  hour.  The  first  Par- 
liament under  the  new  king,  held  in  October,  resumed  with 
great  spirit  the  subject  of  papal  encroachment.  In  the 
course  of  the  discussion,  a  question  came  up  on  which 
Wickliffe's  opinion  was  demanded,  it  is  said,  in  the  name 
of  the  king,  viz  ;  "  Whether  the  kingdom  of  England  may 
lawfully,  in  ease  of  necessity,  detain  and  keep  back  the 
treasure  of  the  kingdom  for  its  own  defence,  that  it  be  not 
carried  away  to  foreign  and  strange  nations,  the  Pope  him- 
self demanding  and  requiring  the  same  under  pain  of  cen- 
sure and  by  virtue  of  obedience  ?"  This  was  not  a  ques- 
tion of  abstract  right,  but  one  of  imminent  practical  im- 
port at  the  very  moment — England  being  then  at  war  with 


THE    POPE    AND    BISHOPS    IN    THE    FIELD.  65 

France,  and  the  Freneli  Pope,  by  virtue  of  his  spiritual 
office,  drainiog  her  of  money  to  furnish  weapons  to  her 
enemy. 

In  his  reply,  Wickliffe,  as  usual,  goes  to  the  root  of  the 
matter,  by  an  appeal  to  the  nature  and  tenure  of  the  apos- 
tolic office,  as  exhibited  in  the  New  Testament.  "  Christ 
saith  to  the  Apostles  :  '  The  kings  of  the  nations  rule  over 
them,  but  ye  shall  not  do  so.'  Here  lordship  and  rule  is 
forbidden  to  the  Apostles,  and  darest  thou  [their  successor] 
usurp  the  same  ?  If  thou  wilt  be  a  lord,  thou  shalt  lose 
thy  apostleship ;  or,  if  thou  wilt  be  an  apostle,  thou  shalt 
lose  thy  lordship  ;  for  truly  thou  must  depart  from  one  of 
them.  If  thou  wilt  have  both,  thou  shalt  lose  both,  or  be 
of  that  number  of  whom  God  complains :  '  They  have 
reigned,  but  not  through  me ;  they  have  become  princes, 
and  I  have  not  known  it.'  Now,  if  it  doth  suffice  thee  to 
rule  with  the  Lord,  thou  hast  thy  glory.  But  if  we  will 
keep  what  is  forbidden  us,  let  us  hear  what  he  saith  :  '  He 
that  is  greatest  among  you,  shall  be  made  as  the  least ;  and 
he  which  is  highest  shall  be  as  the  servant ;'  and  for  an  ex- 
ample, he  set  a  child  in  the  midst  of  them.  So  then,  this 
is  the  true   form  and  institution   of  the  Apostle's  trade ; 

LORDSHIP  AND  RULE  IS  FORBIDDEN;  MINISTRATION  AND  SER- 
VICE COMMANDED."  Therefore,  concludes  the  Reformer, 
the  temporal  goods  heretofore  bestowed  on  the  Pope  were 
not  his  by  the  right  aposiolical,  but  simply  as  alms,  given 
at  the  pleasure  of  the  lonor.  And  as  the  duty  of  alms- 
giving is  measured  by  the  necessity  of  the  recipient  and 
the  ability  of  the  donor,  it  cannot  be  the  duty  of  England, 
in  her  present  impoverished  condition,  to  bestow  charity 
on  the  Pope,  who  is  already  overloaded  with  riches. 
Wherefore,  England  may  detain  her  treasure  for  her  owa 


66  THE    ENGLISH    BIBLE. 

defence,  even  against  the  direct  command  of  the  Pope. 
With  such  simplicity  and  ease  did  WickliiFe,  with  the  New 
Testament  for  his  guide,  loose  a  knot  which  had  been  tight- 
ening for  centuries,  and  was  now  puzzling  the  wisest  heads 
of  the  age. 

But  it  was  now  his  enemies'  turn  to  strike  a  blow.  Three 
mouths  after  this,  a  special  messenger  conveyed  the  papal 
bull,  so  long  concealed,  to  Oxford,  and  delivered  it  in  due 
form  to  the  Chancellor  of  the  University.  In  an  accom- 
panying letter,  the  prelates  demanded  that  Wickliffe  be 
sent  to  St.  Paul's,  there  to  make  answer  to  the  charges 
against  him.  The  University  authorities,  displeased  with  this 
papal  and  episcopal  interference  in  their  affairs,  showed  no 
haste  to  comply.  But  a  synod  being  assembled  at  Lam- 
beth in  April,  Wickliffe  promptly  obeyed  a  summons  to  be 
present. 

This  time,  he  faced  his  enemies  alone.  A  written  state- 
ment of  his  imputed  errors  and  heresies  being  furnished 
him,  he,  in  turn,  replied  to  the  charges  in  writing,  improv- 
ing the  occasion  to  give  a  still  more  full  and  distinct  ex- 
position of  his  views.  Exceptions  have  been  taken  to  this 
document  as,  in  some  portions,  seemingly  vague  and  eva- 
sive in  its  character.  But  in  his  perfect  clearness  in  the 
statement  of  views  most  hazardous  to  express  before  such 
an  assembly,  and  in  the  manner  in  which  the  paper  was 
received  by  his  opponents,  we  have  sufficient  evidence  that 
all  the  weapons  used  by  the  Reformer  on  this  occasion  were 
worthy  of  his  character,  and  well  chosen  for  the  time  and 
place.  The  assertion  that  political  dominion,  or  civil  secu- 
lar government,  inheres  in  the  laity,  not  ic  Peter  or  his 
successors ;  and  that  it  is  lawful  for  the  secular  power  to 
take  away  temporalities  from  churchmen  who  habitually 


THE    rOPE    AND    BISHOPS    IN    THE    FIELD,  67 

abuse  them,  "  notwithstanding  ^excommu  ticatioJi,  or  any 
other  church  censure,^''  could  not  have  been  misunderstood 
bj  the  tribunal  before  which  he  was  arraigned.  But  he 
took  a  yet  higher  and  bolder  tone.  It  had  come  to  be  un- 
derstood, that  all  legislative  and  judicial  competency  in  reli- 
gious matters  was  vested  in  the  clergy;  that  they,  in  fact, 
constituted  the  church  ;  while  the  part  of  the  laity  was 
simply  that  of  implicit,  blind  submission.  In  opposition 
to  this,  Wickliffe  maintains  that  ecclesiastics,  nay,  even  the 
Pope  of  Rome  himself,  may,  in  some  cases,  be  corrected  by 
their  subjects,  and  "  for  the  benefit  of  the  church,  be  im- 
pleaded by  both  clergy  and  laity."  ior  the  Pope,  he  ar- 
gues, being  our  peccable  brother  and  liable  to  sin  as  well  as 
we,  is,  like  us,  subject  to  the  law  of  brotherly  reproof. 
"  When,  therefore,"  he  proceeds,  "  the  whole  college  of 
cardinals  is  remiss  in  correcting  him  for  the  necessary  wel- 
fare of  the  church,  it  is  evident  that  the  rest  of  the  body, 
which,  as  it  may  chance,  may  chiefly  be  made  up  of  the 
laity^  may  medicinally  reprove  and  implead  him,  and  re- 
duce him  to  lead  a  better  life." 

What  would  have  been  the  issue  of  this  trial,  it  is  not 
difficult  to  conjecture,  had  it  not  been  averted  as  unexpect- 
ed as  before  at  St.  Paul's.  Deliverance  came,  however,  in 
this  case,  from  a  very  different  source,  and  in  a  manner 
which  testified  the  spread  of  Wickliffe's  opinions  amono-  the 
common  people.  A  general  alarm  for  his  safety  prevailed 
among  his  friends,  increased,  no  doubt,  by  the  fact  that  the 
trial  was  conducted  before  a  secret  tribunal.  This  feeling 
burst  forth  at  last  into  act.  The  populace  began  to  stream 
from  various  quarters  towards  the  place  of  meeting,  and 
were  there  j(jiued  by  many  of  the  first  citizens  of  London. 
Pressing  their  way  into  the  building,  the  excited  crowd  burst 


68  THE    ENGLISH    BIBLE. 

open  tlie  door  of  the  council-room,  and  rushing  in,  loudly 
demanded  WicklifFe.  And  when,  in  the  midst  of  the  tu- 
mult, Sir  Lewis  Clifford  entered  the  assembly,  and  in  the 
name  of  the  Queen-Mother  (widow  of  the  Black  Prince) 
forbade  any  definitive  sentence  by  the  Court,  a  panic  fear 
seized  on  the  bold  churchmen.  In  the  indignant  words  of 
one  of  their  own  historians,*  they  became  "  as  a  reed  sha- 
ken by  the  wind,  and  grew  soft  as  oil  in  their  speech,  to  the 
manifest  forfeiture  of  their  dignity  and  the  injury  of  the 
whole  church.  With  such  fear  were  they  struck,  that  one 
would  have  thought  them  as  a  man  who  hears  not,  or  in 
whose  mouth  there  av?  no  reproofs."  So  far  from  being 
detained  "  in  custody  and  sure  prison,"  while  awaiting  the 
decision  of  the  Holy  See,  Wickliffe  returned  peaceably  to 
Oxford,  to  lecture,  preach,  and  write  against  the  sins  of 
Popery  with  more  zeal  and  effect  than  ever.  The  expected 
sentence  from  Avignon  never  arrived.  The  death  of  Gre- 
gory XI.  while  the  matter  was  still  pending,  and  the  dis- 
tractions incident  on  the  "  Schism  of  the  Popes  "f  frhich 
followed,  turned  the  attention  of  the  clergy  in  another 
direction,  and  the  Heformer  was  left  for  some  three  years 
longer,  to  pursue  his  career  unmolested. 

*  Walsingliam. 
f  During  the  next  fifty  years,  the  Papal  church  was  blessed  with  two  and 
sometimes  three  infallible  heads,  who  mutually  accused  each  other  as  here- 
tics, Simonists,  impostors,  and  every  thing  else  that  is  vile  and  impious — 
"not  the  worst  proof."  as  Henry  qmintly  remarlis,  "  of  their  infallibility." 


CHAPTER  VI. 


THE  NEW-TESTAMENT  mNISTRY  REVIVED. 

Not  fai*  from  this  time,  Wickliffe  started  a  movement 
which,  for  its  vital  bearings  on  the  interests  of  religion 
and  for  the  perpetuity  of  its  influence,  stands  second  only 
to  his  great  work  of  giving  the  Bible  to  the  people 

From  the  study  of  the  New  Testament,  he  had  arrived 
at  certain  conclusions  very  much  at  variance  with  the 
opinions  of  the  time.  Some  of  these  have  already  been 
noted  in  the  foregoing  narrative ;  but,  for  the  sake  of  clear- 
ness, the  principal  points  will  here  be  mentioned,  in  con- 
nection with  others.     He  believed — 

1  st.  That  the  primitive  church  recognized  no  hierarchy^ 
with  its  ascending  ranks  and  orders  of  spiritual  princes. 
"  By  the  ordinance  of  Christ,"  says  he,  "  priests  and 
bishops  were  all  one.  Biit  afterwards,  the  Emperor  divi- 
ded them,  and  made  bishops  to  be  lords,  and  priests  their 
servants."  "  I  boldly  assert  one  thing,  viz.  :  that  in  the 
primitive  church  or  in  the  time  of  Paul,  two  orders  of  the 
clergy  were  sufficient,  that  is,  a  priest  and  a  deacon.     In 


70  THE    ENGLISH    BIBLE. 

like  manner,  I 'maintain  that  in  the  time  of  Paul,  presby- 
ter and  bishop  were  names  of  the  same  office. — All  other 
degrees  and  orders  have  their  origin  in  the  pride  of  Caesar. 
If  indeed  they  were  necessary  to  the  church,  Christ  would 
not  have  been  silent  respecting  them.  Every  Christian 
should  judge  of  the  office  of  the  clergy  from  what  is  taught 
in  Scripture,  especially  in  the  Epistles  of  Timothy  and 
Titus,  and  should  not  admit  the  new  inventions  of  Cfesar." 

2d.  That  the  lyriesVs  office  is  simply  that  of  the  mmis- 
istry  of  the  word.  The  legislative  right  claimed  by 
Popes,  prelates  and  councils,  and  the  power  of  excommu- 
nication and  absolution  attributed  to  every  member  of  the 
clerical  order,  were,  in  his  view,  impious  invasions  of  the 
prerogatives  of  Christ. 

3d.  That  it  is  the  right  and  duty  of  all  priests,  by  vir- 
tue of  their  office,  to  preach  the  gospel;  and  this,  without 
waiting  for  any  special  license  from  bishops ;  nay — so  strin- 
gent is  the  obligation — even  in  the  face  of  their  prohibi- 
tion. "  The  highest  service  to  ivhich  man  may  attain  on 
earth  '" — such  are  his  noble  words — "  is  to  preach  the  word 
of  God.  This  service  falls  peculiarly  to  priests,  and 
therefore  God  more  straitly  demands  it  of  them.  Hereby 
should  they  produce  children  to  God,  and  this  is  the  end 
for  which  God  wedded  the  church.  It  might  indeed  be 
good  to  have  a  son  that  were  lord  of  this  world ;  but  better 
far  to  have  a  son  in  God,  who,  as  member  of  holy  church, 
shall  ascend  to  heaven.  And  for  this  reason,  Christ  left 
other  works,  and  occupied  himself  mostly  in  preaching,  and 
thus  did  his  apostles,  and  for  this  God  loved  them." — 
"  Jesus  Christ,  when  he  ascended  to  heaven,  commanded  it 
especially  to  all  his  disciples,  to  go  and  preach  the  gospel 
freely  to  all  men.      So  also  when  Christ  spoke  last  with 


THE    NEW-TESTAMENT    MINISTRY    REVIVED.  71 

Peter,  be  bade  bim  tbrice,  as  be  loved  biin,  to  feed  bis 
sheep ;  and  this  a  wise  sbepherd  would  not  bave  done,  if 
be  bad  not  himself  loved  it  well.  In  this  stands  the  office 
of  the  spiritual  shepherd.  And  as  the  bishops  of  the  tem- 
ple hindered  Christ,  so  is  he  hindered  now  by  the  hinder- 
ing of  this  deed.  Therefore  Christ  told  them  that  at  the 
day  of  doom,  Sodom  and  Gomorrah  should  fare  better  than 
they.  And  thus,  if  our  bishops  preach  not  themselves,  and 
binder  true  priests  from  preaching,  they  are  in  the  sin  of 
the  bishops  who  killed  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ." 

4th.  That  the  ministry  is  to  be  supported  by  the  volun- 
tary contributions  of  the  people.  As  we  bave  seen,  Wickliflfe 
bad  long  maintained,  that  ecclesiastical  endowmentswere  op- 
posed to  the  spirit  of  the  New  Testament,  and  were  one  of 
the  main  sources  of  the  corruption  of  the  clergy.  But  he 
goes  farther  than  this.  In  his  view,  the  system  of  tithes 
bad  no  better  foundation.  "  Men  wonder  highly,"  says  he 
in  a  treatise  entitled  '  The  .Curse  Expounded^  *'  why  cu- 
rates are  so  severe  in  exacting  tithes,  since  Christ  and  his 
apostles  took  no  tithes,  as  men  do  now  ;  neither  paid  them, 
nor  even  spoke  of  them,  either  in  the  Gospel  or  the  Epis- 
tles, which  are  the  perfect  law  of  freedom  and  grace.  But 
Christ  lived  on  the  alms  of  holy  women,  as  the  Gospel  tell- 
eth ;  and  the  apostles  lived,  sometimes  by  the  labor  of 
their  hands,  and  sometimes  took  a  poor  livelihood  and 
clothing,  given  of  free  will  and  devotion  by  the  people, 
without  asking  or  constraining."  "  Paul  proved  that 
priests,  preaching  truly  the  gospel,  should  live  by  the  gos- 
pel, and  said  naught  of  tithes.  Certainly,  tithes  were  due 
to  priests  in  the  Old  Law — but  it  is  not  so  now,  in  the  law 
of  grace."  "  Lord  !  why  should  our  worldly  priests  charge 
Christian  people  with  tithes,  offerings,  and  customs,  more 


72  THE    ENGLISli    BIBLE. 

than  did  Christ  and  his  apostles?  Would  to  God,  that 
all  wise  and  true  men  would  enquire,  whether  it  were  not 
better  to  find  good  priests,  by  free  alms  of  the  people,  with 
a  reasonable  and  poor  livelihood,  to  teach  the  gospel  in 
word  and  deed  as  did  Christ  and  his  apostles,  than  thus  to 
pay  tithes  to  a  worldly  priest,  ignorant  and  negligent,  as 
men  are  now  compelled  to  do  by  bulls  and  new  ordinances 
of  priests!"*  In  connexion  with  this,  he  maintains  that 
ordination  by  a  bishop  confers  no  fitness  for  the  sacred 
ofiice ;  it  is  merely  the  outward  recognition  of  a  fitness 
which  can  come  from  God  alone,  and  when  this  is  proved 
to  be  wanting,  becomes  in  the  nature  of  the  case,  null  and 
void.  The  people  should  themselves  decide  in  this  matter, 
by  comparing  the  life  of  the  teacher  thus  placed  over  them 
with  the. infallible  standard  of  Scripture. 

The  revival  of  the  New  Testament  principle,  in  a  body 

*  In  these  views  we  find  an  easy  solution  of  the  disrepute,  in  which  Wick- 
liffe  has  been  held  by  writers  of  the  Church  of  England.  The  pious  Mil- 
ner  (Church  History)  is  filled  with  horror  at  the  Reformer's  radical  no- 
tions of  clerical  emolument.  It  is  no  wonder,  he  thinks,  that  a  man  who 
entertained  such  views  of  tithes,  should  have  been  suspected  of  abetting 
Wat  Tyler  and  other  incendiaries  of  the  time  of  Richard  II.  His  illustra- 
tion of  the  inconvenient  results  of  Wicklifie's  doctrine  is  a  specimen  of 
naivete  hardly  to  be  excelled.  "  He  disliked,"  says  he,  "  all  church  endow- 
ments, and  wished  to  have  the  clergy  reduced  to  a  state  of  poverty.  He 
insists  that  parishioners  have  a  right  to  withhold  tithes  from  pastors  who  are 
guilty  of  fornication.  Now,  if,  in  such  cases,  he  would  have  allowed  every 
individual  to  judge  for  himself,  who  does  not  see  what  a  door  might  bo 
opened  to  confusion,  fraud,  and  the  encouragement  of  avarice!" — luther's 
and  Melanethon's  prejudice  against  Wieklifie,  is  explicable  on  the  same 
ground.  They  could  hardly  believe,  that  a  man  holding  such  heterodox 
views  of  clerical  property,  could  understand  the  doctrine  of  justification  by 
faith.  Surely,  "  the  best  of  men  are  but  men  at  be.^t!"  But  the  wincing 
proves  how  vital  a  point  of  State  religions  had  been  touched  by  the  uncour- 
teous  Eeformer. 


THE    NEW-TESTAMENT    MINISTRY    REVIVED.  73 

of  pious,  self  denying,  working  ministers,  depending  for 
their  maintenance  on  the  voluntary  contributions  of  those 
for  whom  they  labored,  became  now  one  of  Wickliffe's 
priu2e  objects.  His  wonderful  success  in  this  undertaking 
attests  how  strong,  and  how  deeply  spiritual,  was  his  influ- 
ence among  the  youth  of  Oxford.  Christ  himself  was  the 
model,  on  which  he  sought  to  form  them  for  this  self-deny- 
ing work. 

"  Jesus  himself,"  says  he,  "  did  indeed  the  lessons  he 
taught.  The  gospel  relates  how  he  went  about,  in  places 
of  the  country  both  great  and  small,  in  cities  and  castles, 
or  in  small  towns,  and  thi-s  that  he  might  teach  us  to  be- 
come profitable  to  men  everywhere,  and  not  to  forbear  to 
preach  to  a  people  because  they  are  few,  and  our  name  may 
not  in  consequence  be  great.  For  we  should  labor  for 
God,  and  from  Him  hope  for  our  reward.  There  is  no 
doubt  that  Christ  went  into  small  uplandish  towns,  as  to 
Bethphage  and  Cana  in  Galilee,  for  Christ  went  to  all  those 
places  where  he  wished  to  do  good.  He  labored  not  for 
gain,  he  was  not  smitten  with  pride  or  covetousness."  "  It 
was  ever  the  manner  of  Jesus,  to  speak  the  words  of  God 
wherever  be  knew  they  might  be  profitable  to  those  who 
heard  them.  Hence  Christ  often  preached,  now  at  meat, 
now  at  supper,  and  indeed  at  whatever  time  it  was  conve- 
nient for  others  to  hear  him."  "  Christ  sought  man's 
soul,  lost  through  sin,  thirty  years  and  more,  with  great 
travail  and  weariness,  and  many  thousand  miles  upon  his 
feet,  in  cold,  and  storm  and  tempest."  As  the  result  of 
these  efforts,  a  band  of  young  missionaries,  fully  imbued 
with  their  instructor's  views  and  g. owing  with  a  kindred 
zeal,  dispersed  themselves  through  the  remote  villages  and 
hamlets  of  England,  preaching  to  ill  who  would  listen,  tho 

4 


74  THE    ENGLISH    BIBLE. 

* 

glad  tidings  of  a  free  salvation.  Like  the  seventy  sent  out 
by  our  Lord,  they  went  on  foot,  clad  in  coarse  garments, 
the  pilgrim's  staff  in  their  hands — and,  if  so  happy  as  to 
own  such  a  treasure — with  a  Latin  Bible  hid  in  the  bosom 
of  their  gowns.  Wherever  they  found  an  audience — 
whether  in  a  church  or  a  churchyard  ;  in  the  busy  market- 
place ;  amidst  the  noisy  chaffering  and  boisterous  amuse- 
ments of  the  fair — there  they  proclaimed  to  the  people 
"  all  the  words  of  this  life."  To  the  venal  sale  of  indul- 
gences and  priestly  absolution,  they  opposed  the  unbought 
grace  of  the  gospel ;  to  the  invocation  of  saints,  the  one 
Mediator  between  Grod  and  man ;  to  the  worship  of  pic- 
tures and  images,  the  worship  of  the  one  living  and  true 
God  ;  to  the  traditions  of  men  and  the  authority  of  priests, 
the  pure  revelation  of  Grod's  will  in  the  Holy  Scriptures. 
Their  own  blameless  lives  enforced  their  teachings.  Ask- 
ing nothing,  they  received  thankfully  what  was  required 
for  their  simple  wants  ;  and  even  from  this  were  ever  ready 
to  spare  something  for  the  needy.  The  contrast  thus  fur- 
nished, with  the  gross  lives  and  insatiable  beggary  of  the 
Friars,  was  too  striking  to  be  overlooked.  The  apostolio 
motto,  "  Not  yours,  but  you,"  which  was  written  on  all 
their  labors,  sunk  with  the  power  of  demonstration  into  the 
people's  heart.  Such  was  their  zeal,  aud  such  the  eager- 
ness with  which  they  were  received,  that  whole  shires  be- 
came pervaded  with  their  doctrines.  John  Ashton,  it  is 
said,  was  personally  known  over  half  of  England.  So 
rapid  was  their  increase  in  numbers  and  influence  within 
four  years,  that  in  1382  a  great  Convocation  was  assem- 
bled in  London,  for  the  special  purpose  of  concerting  mea- 
sures to  arrest  their  prOi.Tess.  The  archbishop  of  Canter- 
bury, the  bishops  and  ot  er  prelates,  masters  of  divinity, 


THE    NEW-TESTAMENT    MINISTRY    REVIVED.  75 

doctors  of  civil  and  canon  law,  and  a  great  part  of  the 
clergy  of  the  realm  being  there  present,  united  in  an  ap- 
peal to  the  king  for  the  suppression  of  these  preachers,  as 
a  body  of  men,  who  were  perverting  the  whole  nation  with 
their  heretical  and  seditious  doctrines.  A  decree,  framed 
for  this  purpose  by  the  assembled  prelates,  received  the 
secret  concurrence  of  the  king  and  lords,  and  was  surrep- 
titiously inserted  in  the  statute-book  as  a  regular  Act  of 
Parliament,  After  a  statement  of  the  imminent  danger  to 
the  church  and  realm,  the  document  thus  concludes  :  "  It 
is  therefore  ordained  and  assented  in  this  present  Parlia- 
ment, that  the  king's  commission  be  made  and  directed  to 
the  sheriffs  and  other  ministers  of  our  sovereign  lord  the 
king,  or  other  sufficient  persons,  and,  according  to  the  cer- 
tifications of  the  prelates  thereof,  to  be  made  in  the  chan- 
cery from  time  to  time,  to  arrest. all  such  preachers,  and 
also  their  fautors,  maintainers  and  abettors,  and  hold  them 
in  arrest  and  strong  prison,  till  they  shall  purity  them- 
selves according  to  the  law  and  reason  of  holy  church. 
And  the  king  willeth  and  commandeth,  that  the  Chancel- 
lor make  such  commission  at  all  times  that  he,  by  the  pre- 
lates or  any  of  them,  shall  be  certified  and  thereof  required, 
as  aforesaid." 

When  this  fraud  was  discovered  by  the  lower  House, 
they  insisted  that  the  act  should  be  repealed ;  but  the  pre- 
lates so  managed  that  it  kept  its  place  in  the  statute-book, 
and  through  many  succeeding  years  formed  the  basis  of 
prosecutions  for  heresy. 

The  measures  thus  resolved  on  were  followed  up  with 
energy,  but  with  little  efi"ect.  The  love  of  the  people  was 
as  a  wall  of  fire  round  about  their  faithful  teachers.  Many 
country  baronets  of  wealth  and  influence  likewise  espoused 


76  THE    ENGLISH    BIBLE. 

their  cause  ;  and  sometimes,  wheu  danger  was  apprehended, 
a  body-guard  of  gentleraeu  was  seen  around  the  pulpit, 
ready,  if  necessary,  to  defend  with  their  good  swords  the  right 
of  Englishmen  to  speak  and  to  hear,  according  to  the  dic- 
tates of  their  own  consciences.  The  intimidated  sheriff,  hav- 
ing served  on  the  preacher  a  citation  to  appear  before  the  bish- 
op, would  retire  ;  and  before  adequate  forces  could  be  raised 
to  execute  the  writ,  the  evangelist  was  proclaiming  in  some 
far-off  hamlet  the  glad  tidings  of  salvation  to  its  neglected 
poor.  The  devices  of  prelates,  and  the  decrees  of  kings, 
were  not  able  to  break  again  "  the  apostolic  succession," 
thus  revived  by  Wickliffe ;  nor  has  it  been  interrupted 
from  that  day  to  the  present.  From  that  day,  the  Bible- 
conception  of  the  Christian  ministry,  evolved  in  such  beau- 
ful  completeness  by  this  master-spirit  five  hundred  years 
ago,  has  been  slowly  leavening  the  English  mind  ;  and  from 
the  conflicts  for  religious  liberty,  to  which  it  has  given 
birth,  civil  freedom  likewise  has  caught  its  noblest  im- 
pulses. To  estimate  its  full  import,  we  must  trace  its  in- 
fluence through  English  history,  till  its  full  development, 
on  these  western  shores,  gave  to  the  world  the  spectacle  of 
a  Christian  nation,  without  a  State  Church  ;  where  govern- 
ment is  maintained,  and  religion  flourishes,  without  a  Bishop 
or  a  King. 


CHAPTER  VII. 


WICKLIFFE  ATTACKS  THE  CITADEL  OF  PAPAL 
INFLUENCE. 

We  must  now  briefly  contemplate  "Wickliffe  in  yet  one 
more  conflict,  deeply  interesting  in  itself,  and  still  more  in- 
teresting as  forming  the  transition  to  the  greatest,  and 
closing  labor  of  his  life. 

In  the  years  1 379-80,  the  subject  of  the  Eucharist  assum- 
ed a  very  prominent  place  in  his  lectures  at  Oxford.  In  this 
doctrine,  as  held  in  the  papal  church,  the  Reformer  grappled 
with  no  mere  airy  metaphysical  dogma.  The  welcome  it 
received  from  the  Komish  clergy  when  first  promulgated, 
in  the  ninth  century,  and  the  tenacity  with  which  they 
have  clung  to  it  even  down  to  the  present  day,  attests 
their  appreciation  of  its  practical  importance.  "  The  sac- 
rament of  communion,"  says  a  recent  Catholic  writer,*  "  is 
the  highest  of  our  mysteries,  and  is  the  central  point  of  all 

*  See  the  article  Lord's  Supper,  in  the  Encj'o.  Americana,  where  the  Ro- 
mish view  is  presented  by  one  of  its  adherents  with  great  clearness,  and  will 
be  seen  to  differ  in  no  respect  from  that  combatteJ  by  Wickliffe  in  the  four- 
teenth century. 


78  THE    ENGLISH    BIBLE. 

the  institutions  of  the  Catholic  church."  And  again: 
"  The  Catholic  view  of  communion  pervades  the  whole 
Catholic  religious  and  ecclesiastical  system."  "  By  the 
reformation  of  the  sixteenth  century,  the  whole  Catholic 
system  was  attacked ;  as  the  reformers,  rejecting  the  tradi- 
tions of  the  church,  took  the  Bible  alone  for  their  guide  in 
matters  of  belief,  and  departed,  at  the  same  time,  from  the 
Catholic  theory  of  communion.  If  they  had  left  the  Catho- 
lic doctrine  on  communion,  the  priesthood  and  mass  would 
necessarily  have  remained  too."  A  consideration  of  a  few 
leading  points  involved  in  the  doctrine  fully  justifies  these 
assertions ;  and  shows  that  it  forms  the  dividing  line  be- 
tween Romanism,  with  its  traditions,  its  mystic  sense,  and 
its  blind  submission  to  the  priesthood,  on  the  one  side,  and 
on  the  other,  Protestantism,  with  its  respect  for  the  human 
understanding,  and  its  acceptance  of  the  Bible  as  supreme 
authority. 

Its  very  starting-point  was  the  repudiation  of  the  bodily 
senses,  of  the  reason,  and  of  Scripture,  as  reliable  sources 
of  evidence.  The  dicttim  of  the  church  was  here  all  and 
in  all.  Sight,  smell,  taste,  touch,  though  obstinately  re- 
porting the  bread  to  be  still  bread ;  the  plainest  conclu- 
sions of  reason,  and  the  obvious  import  of  Scripture ;  all 
weighed  nothing  in  opposition  to  that  "  mystic  sense," 
which  the  church  had  seen  fit  to  impose  on  the  ordinance 
of  the  Supper.  So  interpreted,  it  presented  a  strange 
combination  of  Jewish  and  Pagan  ideas  under  christian 
names.  It  was  Jewish,  in  its  notion  of  a  perpetually  re- 
peated sacrifice  for  sin  ;  for,  at  each  performance  of  mass, 
the  living  Christ,  "  body  and  blood,  soul  and  divinity," 
was  offered  anew  as  a  propitiation  to  the  Father  !  It  was 
Pagan,  in  its  worship  of  an  inanimate,  created  object  aa 


WICKLIFFE    ATTACKS    THE    PAPAL    CITADEL.  79 

God,  and  in  its  multiplication  of  gods.  For  not  only  did 
the  wafer  become,  by  the  consecrating  words,  a  proper  ob- 
ject of  adoration,  but  eacb  separate  fragment  into  which 
it  was  broken  contained  the  whole  Christ,  and  was  to  be 
worshiped  as  such.  Of  the  spiritual  worship  of  the  one 
invisible,  uncreated  God,  and  of  the  atonement  made  by 
Christ,  once  for  all,  nothing  was  left  but  these  monstrous, 
distorted  shadows. 

From  this  view  of  the  Lord's  Supper,  necessarily  pro- 
ceeded that  of  the  mysterious  sanctity  and  prerogatives  of 
the  clerical  office.  Who  could  set  limits  to  the  spiritual 
power  of  one,  who  could  thus  "make  his  Maker  ?"  Ey  what 
arguments  could  the  credulous  believer  be  persuaded,  that 
anathemas  and  absolutions  from  lips  that  pronounced,  the 
awful  "  Hoc  corpus  meum,"  were  of  no  effect  ?  The  sim- 
ple minister  of  the  word  thus  rose  into  the  dignity  of  a 
sacrificing  priest,  whose  consecrated  hands  offered  the 
atonement,  without  which  there  was  no  remission  of  sins. 
Nay,  he  could  reach  even  to  the  place  of  departed  spirits, 
and  there  reverse  the  decisions  of  God  himself  on  those 
who  had  died  in  sin.  It  was  chiefly  through  this  doctrine, 
that  the  Romish  clergy  had  obtained  tl>eir  strange  sway 
over  the  minds  of  men  ;  for  having,  in  regard  to  this  vital 
point,  given  up  the  Scriptures,  reason,  and  their  very 
senses,  into  the  keeping  of  their  spiritual  guides,  there  was 
nothing  to  save  them  from  being  blind  victims  of  every 
other  imposition.  Body  and  soul  were  both  sealed  for 
bondage.  The  outer  light  of  Scripture  was  taken  away; 
the  light  that  was  in  them  became  darkness. 

There  has  been  mudi  controversy,  as  to  the  precise  views 
entertained  by  Wickliffe  himself  in  regard  to  tlie  Eucharist, 
originating  probably  in  a  misapprehension  of  the  obscure 


80  THE   ENGLISH    BIBLE. 

scholastic  laaguage  of  his  learned  discussiona.  Nothing  can 
be  the  more  explicit,  or  satisfactory,  than  the  views  expressed 
in  his  English  writings  on  the  subject,  intended  for  the  com- 
mon people.  Thus  in  his  "  Wyckett,"  an  English  treatise  in 
defence  of  the  Scripture  doctrine  of  the  Supper,  he  asks  : 
"  May  the  thing  made  turn  again  and  make  him  that  made 
it  ?  Thou  then  that  art  an  earthly  man,  by  what  reason 
mayst  thou  say  that  thou  makest  thy  Maker  ?  Were  this 
doctrine  true,  it  would  follow  that  the  thing  which  is  not 
God  to-day,  shall  be  God  to-morrow ;  yea,  the  thing  that 
is  without  spirit  of  life,  but  groweth  in  the  field  by  nature, 
shall  another  time  be  God.  And  yet  we  ought  to  believe 
that  God  is  without  beginning  or  ending."  "  Christ 
saith,  I  am  a  very  vine.  Wherefore  do  ye  not  worship 
the  vine  for  God,  as  ye  do  the  bread?  Wherein  was 
Christ  a  very  vine  ?  Or  wherein  was  the  bread  Christ's 
body  ?  It  was  m  figurative  speech,  which  is  hidden  to  the 
understanding  of  sinners.  And  thus,  as  Christ  became 
not  a  material  or  earthly  vine,  nor  a  material  vine  the 
body  of  Christ,  so  neither  is  material  bread  changed  for  its 
substance  into  the  flesh  and  blood  of  Christ." 

But  whether^  in  that  dark  age,  he  attained  to  perfect 
light  on  this  or  other  doctrines,  is  to  us  of  little  moment, 
compared  with  his  noble  vindication  of  the  two  great  Pro- 
testant principles  —  the  word  of  God  the  sole  guide  in 
matters  of  religion  ;  individual  inquiry  and  conviction  the 
right  and  duty  of  all  men. 

It  was  from  this  purely  Protestant  stand-point,  that 
Wickliffe  assailed  the  vital  dogma  of  the  Papacy.  He 
resented  the  indignity  it  offered,  both  to  the  reason  which 
God  had  kindled  as  a  light  in  the  soul  of  man,  and  to  the 
revelation  of  hia  own  will  in  the  Scriptures.     "  Of  all  the 


WICKLIFFE  ATTACKS  THE  PAPAL  :iTADEL,      81 

heresies  that  have  ever  sprung  up  in  the  church,"  thus  he 
■writes  in  the  Trialogus,  "  I  think  there  is  not  one  more 
artfully  introduced  by  hypocrites,  or  one  imposing  such 
manifold  fraud  on  the  people.  It  repudiates  the  Scrip- 
tures ;  it  wrongs  the  people ;  it  causes  them  to  commit 
idolatry.  It  is  not  reasonable  to  suppose,  that  God  can 
have  designed  to  put  confusion  on  that  intelligence,  ■which 
he  has  himself  implanted  in  our  nature.  Of  all  the  ex- 
ternal senses  that  God  has  bestowed  on  man,  touch  and 
taste  are  the  least  liable  to  err  in  the  judgment  they  give. 
But  this  heresy  would  overturn  the  evidence  of  these 
senses,  and  without  cause ;  surely  the  sacrament  which 
does  that  must  be  a  sacrament  of  Antichrist."  "  Let  the 
knowledge  obtained  by  our  external  senses  deceive  us,  nnd 
the  internal  senses  will,  of  necessity,  fall  under  the  same 
delusion.  But  what,"  he  exclaims,  "can  have  moved  the 
Lord  Jesus  Christ,  thus  to  confound  and  destroy  all  power 
of  natu'-al  discernment,  in  the  senses  and  minds  of  his  wor- 
shipers ?"  "  It  is,"  he  says  in  his  Trialogus,  "  as  if  the 
Devil  had  been  scheming  to  this  effect,  saying, — '  If  I  can, 
by  my  vicar  Antichrist,  so  far  seduce  believers  as  to  bring 
them  to  deny  that  this  sacrament  is  bread,  and  to  believe 
in  it  as  a  contemptible  quality  without  a  substance,  I  may 
after  that,  and  in  the  same  manner,  lead  them  to  believe 
whatever  I  may  wish ;  inasmuch  as  the  opposite  is  plainly 
taught,  both  by  the  language  of  Scripture,  and  by  the  very 
senses  of  mankind.'  Doubtless,  after  awhile,  these  simple- 
hearted  believers  may  be  brought  to  say,  that  however  a 
prelate  may  live — be  he  effeminate,  a  homicide,  a  simon- 
ist,  or  stained  with  any  other  vice — this  must  never  be 
believed  concerning  him  by  a  people  who  would  be  re- 
garded as  duly  obedient.     But  by  the  grace  of  Christ,  I 


82  THE    ENGLISH    BIBLE. 

will  keep  clear  of  the  heresy,  which  teaches  that  if  the  Pope 
and  Cardinals  assert  a  certain  thing  to  be  the  sense  of 
Scripture,  therefore  so  it  is;  for  that  were  to  set  them 
above  the  Apostles." 

But  though  he  would  not  allow  the  witness  of  the  hu- 
man senses  and  reason  to  be  set  aside  by  mere  church 
authority,  the  Scriptures  were,  on  this  as  on  every  other 
doctrine,  the  only  infallible  guide.  "  Let  every  man,"  he 
says  in  the  conclusion  of  his  '  Wyckett,'  "  wisely,  with 
much  care  and  great  study,  and  also  with  charity,  read  the 
words  of  God  in  the  Holy  Scriptures."  "  Now,  therefore, 
pray  we  heartily  to  God  that  this  evil  time  may  be  made 
short,  for  the  sake  of  the  chosen  men,  as  he  hath  promised 
in  his  holy  Gospel,  and  that  the  large  and  broad  way  to 
perdition  may  be  stopped,  and  that  the  straight  and  narrow 
way  which  leadeth  to  bliss  may  be  made  open  by  the  Holy 
Scriptures,  that  we  may  know  what  is  the  will  of  God,  to 
serve  him  with  truth  and  holiness,  in  the  dread  of  God, 
that  we  may  find  by  him  a  way  of  bliss  everlasting.  So 
be  it !" 

For  two  or  three  years,  Wickliffe  was  zealously  engaged 
in  disseminating  these  views  in  the  lecture-room,  in  the 
pulpit,  and  by  his  ever  active  pen.  That  he  was  permitted  to 
do  it  so  long  unquestioned,  he  owed  chiefly  to  the  distrac- 
tions in  the  Papacy,  which,  for  a  long  period,  furnished 
the  prelates  of  Christendom  with  full  occupation.  But 
from  the  sequel,  it  is  clear  that  his  course  was  watched 
by  eager  foes,  who  were  merely  "  biding  their  time." — • 
Such  he  had  even  at  Oxford,  and  by  various  changes,  they 
at  length  came  to  have  the  "ascendency  in  the  University 
administration.  In  the  spring  of  1381,  Wicklifi"e  chal- 
lenged the  University  to  a  public  disputation  on  the  sub- 


WTCKLIFFE    ATTACKS    TIIK    PAPAL    CITADEL.  83 

ject  of  the  Eucharist.  In  the  twelve  theses  which  he  pub- 
lished as  the  basis  of  the  discussion,  he  declared  that  "  the 
bread  we  see  on  the  altar  is  not  Christ,  nor  any  part  of 
him,  but  simply  an  effectual  sign  of  him ;  and  that  the 
doctrines  of  transubstantiation,  identification,  and  impana- 
tion,  have  no  basis  in  Scripture."  This  brought  on  the  crisis. 
Berton,  their  Chancellor,  being  a  partizan  of  the  Religious 
Orders,  and,  of  course,  hostile  to  Wickliffe,  resolved  that 
he  should  not  have  the  eclat  of  a  victory  at  Oxford.  In- 
stead, therefore,  of  responding  to  his  challenge,  he  assem- 
bled a  secret  council  of  twelve  theological  doctors,  eight 
being  from  the  Orders,  who  unanimously  pronounced 
Wickliffe's  doctrine  to  be  erroneous,  and  contrary  to  the 
determinations  of  the  church.  They  decreed,  furthermore, 
that  "  if  any  person,  of  whatever  degree,  state,  or  condi- 
tion, shall  in  future  publicly  teach  such  doctriniJ  in  the 
University,  or  shall  listen  to  one  so  teaching,  he  shall  be 
suspended  from  all  scholastic  exercises,  shall  be  liable  to 
the  greater  excommunication,  and  shall  be  committed  to 
prison."  Truly,  a  compendious  method  for  purging  Oxford 
of  heresy  ! 

Wiekliife  was  seated  in  his  lecture-room,  discussing  this 
very  subject  before  his  class,  when  the  University  officers 
entered,  and  announced  the  above  decrees.  It  has  been 
asserted  by  his  enemies,  that  he  betrayed  some  confusioa 
while  listening  to  the  proclamation.  It  surely  would 
argue  no  remarkable  weakness,  had  so  sudden  and  rude  an 
assault — and  in  that  place  of  all  others — shaken  his  firm 
spirit  for  the  moment.  Wickliffe  was  not  a  man  of  iron 
nerves,  but,  as  we  see  from  his  portrait,  and  from  the  re- 
flection of  his  life  and  writings,  of  the  most  quick  and  lively 
sensibility.     The  emotion  was  but  for'  an  instant.     Rising 


84  THE    ENGLISH    BIBLE. 

with  dignity,  as  soon  as  the  reading  of  the  official  document 
was  finished,  he  protested  against  this  arbitrary  suppression 
of  opinions,  which  could  not  be  confuted  in  a  free  discus- 
sion, and  declared  his  intention  to  appeal  to  the  King  for 
the  protection  of  his  rights. 

The  Chancellor's  power  could  not  reach  beyond  Oxford. 
Wickliffe  therefore  retired  to  Lutterworth,  and  devoted 
himself  to  writing  and  preaching,  while  awaiting  a  reversal 
of  Berton's  unjust  decision.  But  this  never  came.  The 
rude  dismissal,  thus  described,  proved  to  be  the  close  of 
his  connection  with  a  school  of  sacred  learning,  of  which 
he  had  been  so  long  the  most  illustrious  ornament.  No 
doubt  it  was  an  event  in  many  ways  painful  to  himself, 
and  exulted  in  by  his  enemies  as  a  signal,  if  not  final  vic- 
tory over  the  bold  Beformer.  Could  they  have  foreseen 
the  result,  they  would  have  left  him  unmolested  in  the 
Professor's  chair.  Their  short-sighted  hatred  served  but 
to  introduce  that  crowning  period  of  his  labors,  which  gave 
to  priestcraft  in  England  its  deadly  wound,  and  made  his 
influence  and  name  imperishable. 


CHAPTER  VIII. 


WICKLIFFE'S  WRITINGS  FOR  THE  PEOPLE. 

From  the  period  of  Wickliife's  retirement  to  Lutter- 
worth, a  marked  change  appears  in  the  direction  of  his 
labors.  The  plans  of  reform,  on  which  he  had  spent  so 
large  a  portion  of  his  best  years,  seemed  now  farther  from 
realization  than  ever.  All  hope  of  improvement  proceed- 
ing from  the  "  Head  of  the  Church,"  from  the  clergy,  or 
from  the  enlightened  action  of  the  secular  power,  was  now 
seen  to  be  vain.  Even  Oxford,  the  last  refuge  of  intellec- 
tual and  religious  freedom,  had  barred  her  doors  against 
him.  It  all  served  but  to  ripen  in  his  mind  the  great  idea, 
by  which  his  labors  were  to  be  separated  from  the  decay- 
ing Past,  and  to  receive  a  living,  organic  connexion  with 
the  whole  future  of  his  country  and  his  race.  He  turns 
from  king  and  noble,  from  Pope,  and  priest  and  scholar, 
with  the  determination  to  place  the  light  of  divine  truth, 
freed  from  all  veil  or  covering,  in  the  honest  keeping  of 
the  common  people. 

Under  the  inspiration  of  this  idea,  Wickliffe  entered 


86  THE    ENGLISH    BIBLE, 

with  redoubled  vigor  on  the  final  stage  of  his  activity.  He 
was  now  in  his  fifty-seventh  year  ;  and  though  disease,  and 
the  excitements  of  his  stormy  life  had  shaken  his  bodily 
frame,  the  eagle  spirit  seemed  gifted  with  more  than  youth- 
ful fire.  Never  before  had  he  exhibited  such  productive 
energy.  His  English  writings  for  the  people  budded  under 
his  pen  like  leaves  in  spring.  It  is  evident,  from  various 
passages  in  his  works,  that  he  looked  upon  this  golden 
opportunity  as  very  brief;  that  persecution,  to  close  per- 
haps in  martyrdom,  was  among  the  anticipations  of  each 
to-morrow.  He  labored,  therefore,  as  one  who  has  a  mes- 
sage of  life  and  death  to  deliver,  and  fears  he  may  not  have 
time  to  utter  it.  "I  should  be  worse  than  an  infidel  " — 
thus  he  writes  in  one  of  his  works  on  the  Eucharist — 
"  were  I  not  to  defend  unto  the  death,  the  law  of  Christ ; 
and  certain  I  am,  that  it  is  not  in  the  power  of  the  heretics, 
and  disciples  of  Anti-Christ,  to  impugn  this  evangelical 
doctrine.  On  the  contrary,  I  trust  through  our  Lord's 
mercy,  to  be  superabundantly  rewarded,  after  this  short 
and  miserable  life,  for  the  lawful  contention  which  I  wage. 
I  know  from  the  Gospel,  that  Anti-Christ,  with  all  his 
devices,  can  only  kill  the  body ;  but  Christ,  in  whose  cause 
I  contend,  can  cast  both  body  and  soul  into  hell-fire.  Sure 
I  am,  that  he  will  not  suffer  his  servants  to  want  what  is 
needful  for  them,  since  he  freely  exposed  himself  to  a  dread- 
ful death  for  their  sakes,  and  has  ordained  that  all  his 
most  beloved  disciples  should  pass  through  severe  suffering 
with  a  view  to  their  good." 

It  is  a  matter  of  regret,  that  the  limits  of  this  sketch 
allow  only  of  a  few  brief  extracts  from  these  writings,  so 
characteristic  of  the  genius  and  spirit  of  the  man.  The 
whole  range  of  subjects  which  had  formed  the  groundwork 


wickliffe's  writings  for  the  people.  87 

of  his  life-labors,  was  here  presented  ia  a  form  admirably- 
adapted  to  the  common  mind.  In  his  own  noble,  homely, 
expressive  English,  the  true  language  of  the  people,  he 
unmasks  the  character,  the  false  pretensions  and  corrupt 
doctrines  of  the  priesthood;  and  encourages _^the  humbla 
reader,  in  the  exercise  of  the  understanding  which  God  has 
given  him,  enlightened  by  the  Scriptures,  to  meet  them  like 
a  free  Christian  man.  They  are  not,  however,  mainly  of  a 
controversial  nature,  though  most  of  them  must,  of  neces- 
sity, contain  pointed  allusions  to  the  specific  sins  and  errors 
of  the  clergy.  But  his  chief  object,  in  the  exposure  of 
error,  is  to  gain  for  the  great  saving  truths  of  the  Gospel, 
an  immediate,  life-imparting  contact  with  the  souls  of  his 
readers.  He  seeks  to  detach  them  from  their  false  guides, 
only  that  he  may  lead  them  to  the  one  Saviour  from  siu 
and  misery. 

Among  the  most  interesting  of  his  offerings  to  the  poor 
and  humble  in  society,  are  those  little  treatises,  designed 
strictly  as  helps  to  a  devout  and  holy  life.  His  English 
writings,  in  general,  are  characterized  by  a  brevity  singular 
in  that  day  of  interminable  folios.  But  these  mark  still 
more  strikingly,  the  practical  genius  of  the  Reformer. 
Our  modern  religious  tracts,  that  mighty  agency  for  the 
diffusion  of  truth,  are  but  the  reproduction  of  the  device 
struck  from  his  prophetic  brain  five  hundred  years  ago. 
"  The  Poor  Caitiff^''*  is  a  collection  of  such  little  detached 
pieces,  none  of  them  extending  beyond  a  few  pages,  some 
only  over  a  leaf  or  two,  and  others  but  a  single  page. 
From  their  extreme  brevity,  they  could  be  multiplied  and 
scattered  almost  without  limit,  even  in  an  age  when  print- 

*  Published  in  the  "British  Reformers"  of  the  London  Religious  Tract 
Society.     Caitiff  was  the  common  sppeUa/ion  of  a  person  in  the  lower  ranks. 


88  THE    ENGLISH    BIBLE. 

iug  was  unknown.  It  has  been  well  said  of  Dr.  Watts, 
that  the  true  greatness  of  his  character  nowhere  appears  so 
clearly  as  in  his  "  Divine  Songs  for  Children."  With  yot 
deeper  reverence  do  we  sit  at  the  feet  of  Wicklifi'e,  the 
royal  ambassador,  the  friend  of  princes,  the  most  eminent 
scholar  of  his  time,  as  with  sublime  simplicity,  humility, 
and  sweetness,  he  speaks  to  the  neglected  and  degraded 
poor,  these  heavenly  words  of  instruction  and  consolation. 
They  are  the  best  refutation  of  the  malevolent  charge  that 
his  influence  tended  to  popular  disorder.  Two  or  three 
passages  must  suffice  here. 

"  To  any  degree  of  true  love  to  Jesus,  no  soul  can  attain 
unless  he  be  truly  meek.  For  a  proud  soul  sesks  to  have 
his  own  will,  and  so  he  shall  never  come  to  any  degree  of 
God's  love.  Ever  the  lower  that  a  soul  sitteth  in  the  val- 
ley of  meekness,  so  many  the  more  streams  of  grace  and 
love  come  thereto.  And  if  the  soul  be  high  in  the  hills 
of  pride,  the  wind  of  the  fiend  bloweth  away  all  manner  of 
goodness  therefrom."  *'  Singular  love  is,  when  all  solace 
and  comfort  is  closed  out  of  the  heart  but  the  love  of  Jesus 
alone.  Other  delight  or  other  joy  pleases  not;  for  the 
sweetness  of  him  is  so  comforting  and  lasting,  his  love  is 
so  burning  and  gladdening,  that  he  who  is  in  this  degree 
may  well  feel  the  fire  of  love  burning  in  his  soul.  That 
fire  is  so  pleasant  that  no  man  can  tell  but  he  that  feeleth 
it,  and  not  fully  he.  Then  the  soul  is  Jesus  loving,  on 
Jesus  thinking,  and  Jesus  desiring,  only  burning  in  covet- 
ing of  him;  singing  in  him,  resting  on  him.  Then  the 
thought  turns  to  song  and  melody."  "  God  playeth  with 
his  child  when  he  suffereth  him  to  be  tempted;  as  a  mother 
rises  from  her  much  beloved  child,  and  hides  herself  and 
leaves  him  alone,  and  suffers  him  to  cry,  Mother,  Mother, 


wickliffe's  writings  for  the  people.  89 

so  that  he  looks  about,  cries  and  weeps  for  a  time ;  and  at 
last  when  the  chiki  is  ready  to  be  overset  with  troubles  and 
weeping,  she  comes  again,  clasps  him  in  her  arras,  kisses 
him  and  wipes  away  the  tears.  So  our  Lord  suffereth  his 
loved  child  to  ^be  tempted  and  troubled  for  a  time,  and 
withdraweth  some  of  his  solace  and  full  protection,  to  see 
what  his  child  will  do  ;  and  when  he  is  about  to  be  over- 
come by  temptations,  theu  he  defendeth  him  and  comfort- 
eth  him  by  his  grace." 

These  writings  were  the  text-books  of  piety  to  the  perse- 
cuted church  of  Christ,  for  more  than  a  hundred  years ; 
and  next  to  the  English  Bible,  were  the  most  efficient 
agency  in  moulding  its  opinions  and  character,  and  in 
making  ready,  against  the  happier  times  to  come,  a  people 
for  the  Lord.  They  often  had  the  honor  of  being  cast  with 
the  inspired  word  into  the  flames,  or  of  mingling  their 
ashes  with  those  of  the  martyr,  convicted  of  having  read 
and  believed  their  words,  on  whose  faithful  bosom  they 
had  been  hung  as  a  mark  of  shame.  So  largely  were  they 
multiplied,  and  so  sacredly  treasured  by  the  people,  that 
after  a  century  and  a  half  of  rigid  proscription  and  de- 
struction, it  was  found  no  very  difficult  matter  to  make 
entire  collections  of  these  writings. 


CHAPTER   IX. 


THE  FIRST  EXGLISn  BIBLE. 

But  Wickliffe's  great  work  for  the  people  was  not  yet 
done.  The  labors  just  narrated,  though  in  themselves  in- 
estimable, were  but  the  pioneers  of  one  infinitely  more  im- 
portant; but  voices,  crying  through  the  waste  places  of 
England,  "  Prepare  the  way  of  the  Lord  !"  This  crown- 
ing work,  even  now  progressing  amidst  the  hurry  and 
pressure  of  his  other  toils,  was  the  Translation  of  the 
ENTiKK  Scriptures  of  the  Old  and  New  Testaments  into 
THE  English  tongue. 

There  is  no  reason  to  suppose  that  this  was  a  new  idea 
to  Wickliffe's  mind.  In  the  nature  of  the  case,  it  could 
hardly  be  so.  From  the  very  beginning  of  his  career,  we 
have  seen  him  vindicating  the  supreme  authority  of  the 
Scriptures  against  that  of  the  self-styled  church.  His  ap- 
peal was  ever  to  "  the  Law  and  the  Testimony."  "  Who- 
ever spoke  not  according  to  this  word,"  though  it  were  the 
infallible  Head  of  Christendom,  "  there  was  no  light  in 
him."     In  his  efforts  to  enlighten  the  laity,  the  need  of  the 


THE    FIRST    ENGLISH    BIBLE.  91 

inspired  standard  of  truth,  in  their  own  language,  must 
Lave  pressed  itself  upon  him  with  increasing  weight.  We 
find,  accordingly,  that  even  during  the  hurry  of  his  public 
life,  he  had  found  leisure  to  prepare,  from  time  to  time, 
translations  of  single  portions  of  the  New  Testament,  in 
connection  with  expositions,  for  the  use  of  the  people.  la 
the  prologues  to  these  works,  the  propriety  and  duty  of 
giving  the  Scriptures  to  the  laity,  in  their  mother  tongue, 
is  claimed  in  the  most  explicit  manner.  Thus,  in  the  pro- 
logue to  Luke,  he  says  :*  "  Therefore  a  poor  caitiflF,  let 
from  preaching  for  a  time  for  causes  known  of  God,  writetli 
the  Gospel  of  Luke  in  English,  with  a  short  exposition  of 
old  and  holy  doctors,  to  the  poor  men  of  his  nation,  which 
know  little  Latin  or  none,  and  be  poor  of  wit  and  worldly 
chattel,  and  natheless,  rich  of  good  will  to  please  God. — 
Thus,  with  God's  grace,  poor  christian  men  may  somedeal 
know  the  text  of  the  Gospel,  with  the  common  sentence  of 
old  holy  doctors,  and  therein  know  the  meek  and  poor  and 
charitable  living  of  Christ  and  his  apostles,  to  sue  them  in 
virtues  and  in  bliss;  and  also  know  the  proud  and  covet- 
ous and  veniable  living  of  Antichrist  and  his  followers,  to 
flee  them  and  their  cursed  deeds,  and  pains  of  hell.  For, 
no  doubt,  as  our  Lord  Jesus  Chr'st  and  his  apostles  pro- 
fess plainly,  Antichrist  and  his  cursed  disciples  should 
come,  and  deceive  many  men  by  hypocrisy  and  tyranny ; 
and  the  best  armor  of  christian  men  against  this  cursed 
chieftain  with  his  host,  is  the  text  of  holy  writ.  Christ 
Jesus,  for  thine  endless  power,  mercy,  and  charity,  make 

thy  blessed  law  known  and  kept  of  thy  people 

Amen,  good  Lord  Jesus  !"     So  in  his  prologue  to  John's 
Gospel :  *'  Our  Lord   Jesus   Christ,  very  God  and   very 

*  Preface  U  Wickliffe's  Blljle. 


92  THE    ENGLISH    BIBLE. 

man,  came  to  serve  poor  meek  men,  and  to  teacli  tliem  the 
Gospel;  and  for  this  cause  St.  Paul  saitli  that  he  and 
other  apostles  of  Christ  be  servants  of  christian  men  by 
our  Lord  Jesus  Christ.  And  he  saith  also,  I  am  debtor 
to  wise  men  and  unwise ;  and,  Bear  ye  the  charges  of  one 
another,  and  so  ye  shall  fill  the  law  of  Christ.  Therefore 
a  simple  creature  of  God,  willing  to  bear,  in  part,  the 
charges  of  simple  poor  men  well  willing  in  God's  cause, 
writeth  a  short  gloss  in  English  on  the  Gospel  of  John." 
These  earlier  translations  mark  a  tendency  in  Wickliffe's 
mind,  which  could  hardly  fail  to  expand,  under  favorable 
circumstances,  into  the  purpose  to  give  the  whole  Bible 
to  his  countrymen.  Accordingly,  from  the  period  of  his 
retirement  from  Oxford,  the  right  of  the  laity  to  the  Scrip- 
tures forms  a  prominent  subject  in  his  writings;  and  is 
vindicated  with  a  noble  confidence  in  divine  truth,  and  in 
the  intelligence  and  honesty  of  the  common  mind,  which 
some  modern  Protestants  would  do  well  to  study.  The 
following  paragraph  is  worthy  of  being  written  in  letters  of 
gold :  "  As  the  faith  of  the  church  is  contained  in  the 
Scriptures,  the  more  these  are  known  in  their  true  meaning 
the  better  ;  and  inasmuch  as  secular  men  should  assuredly 
•understand  the  faith  they  profess,  that  faith  should  be 
taught  them  in  whatever  language  may  be  best  known  to 
them.  Forasmuch,  also,  as  the  doctrines  of  our  faith  are 
more  clearly  and  exactly  expressed  in  the  Scriptures,  than 
they  may  probably  be  by  priests, — seeing,  if  I  may  so 
speak,  that  many  prelates  are  but  too  ignorant  of  Holy  Scrip- 
ture, while  others  conceal  many  parts  of  it ;  and  as  the 
verbal  instructions  of  priests  have  many  other  defects, — 
the  conclusion  is  abundantly  manifest,  that  believers  should 
ascertain  for  themselves  what  are  the  true  matters  of  their 


THE    FIRST    ENGLISH    BIBLE.  93 

faith,  by  having  the  Scriptures  in  a  language  which  they 
fully  understand.  For  the  laws  made  by  prelates  are  not 
to  be  received  as  matters  of  faith,  nor  arc  we  to  confide  in 
their  public  instructions,  nor  in  any  of  their  words,  but 
as  they  are  founded  on  Holy  Writ, — since  th^*.  Scriptures 
contain  the  whole  truth.  And  this  translation  of  them 
into  English  should  therefore  do  at  least  this  good,  viz.  : 
placing  bishops  and  priests  above  suspicion  as  to  the  parts 
of  it  which  they  profess  to  explain.  Other  means,  such  as 
the  friars,  prelates,  the  pope,  may  all  prove  defective ;  and 
to  provide  against  this,  Christ  and  his  Apostles  evangel- . 
ized  the  greater  portion  of  the  world,  by  making  knowa 
the  Scriptures  to  the  people  in  their  own  language.  To 
this  end,  indeed,  did  the  Holy  Spirit  endow  them  with  the 
knowledge  of  tongues.  Why,  then,  should  not  the  living 
disciples  of  Christ  do  in  this  respect  as  they  did  ?" 

It  may  properly  be  asked,  what  is  the  difference  in  re- 
spect to  the  great  principle  here  involved,  whether  it  be  a 
Popish  or  a  Protestant  clergy  which  stands  between  the 
Scriptures  and  the  people ;  or  whether  it  be  the  whole,  or 
only  a  part,  of  God's  word  which  they  retain  in  their  con- 
secrated keeping  ? 

The  realization,  for  his  own  countrymen,  of  this  mani- 
fest purpose  of  God  in  respect  to  all  nations,  now  became 
the  leading  object  of  Wickliffe's  efforts.  Calling  in  the 
assistance  of  the  ripest  scholars  among  his  followers,  he 
prosecuted  the  task  with  such  vigor,  that,  in  the  year 
1384,  the  entire  translation  was  completed.  The  forge  in 
the  old  rectory  study  must  have  glowed  day  and  night 
during  this  period  ;  and  yet,  in  such  consummate  silence 
did  the  hallowed  labor  proceed,  that  it  was  doing  its  work 
among  the  people  before  its  existence  was  suspected  by 


94  THE    ENGLISH    BIBLE. 

the  clergy.  The  yell  of  rage  with  which  they  greeted  its 
appearance,  betrayed  their  consciousness  that  the  ancient 
foundations  of  their  power  were  shaken. 

This  ancient  version  was  not,  indeed,  made  from  the 
original  sources — the  Hebrew  and  Greek  Scriptures.  No 
copies  of  these  existed  at  that  time  in  all  western  Europe. 
Through  converted  Jewish  scholars,  a  slight  interest  in 
the  study  of  Hebrew  had  already  been  awakened  on  the 
continent;  but  this  had  not  yet  extended  to  England.  It 
had  fared  even  worse  with  the  Greek  language,  which  was 
now  as  unknown  on  the  island  as  though  it  had  never  had 
an  existence. 

In  making  his  version  from  the  Latin  Vulgate,  Wick- 
liflfe,  therefore,  only  submitted  to  a  necessity.  It  is  matter 
of  thankfulness,  that,  in  the  absence  of  the  original  Scrip- 
tures, so  good  a  representative  of  them  *  should  have  been 
within  his  reach.  Jerome,  who  was  the  first  Biblical 
scholar  of  his  age,  was  thoroughly  acquainted  with  both 
Greek  and  Hebrew ;  and  his  version,  being  executed  in  the 
fourth  century,  was  based  on  manuscripts  older,  by  several 
centuries,  than  those  to  which  later  English  translators 
had  access.  Hence,  in  not  a  few  instances,  WicklifiTe's 
translation  gives  the  true  meaning  of  a  passage,  where  its 
successors  failed  to  do  so.  But,  on  the  other  hand,  the  dis- 
advantages of  translating  from  a  translation,  especially  in  the 
case  of  a  book  so  ancient  and  so  peculiar  as  the  Bible,  are 
of  a  very  serious  character.     The  copy  follows  the  model 

*  "The  Vulgate,"  says  the  learned  and  judicious  Dr.  George  Campbell, 
"  is,  in  the  main,  a  good  and  faithful  version."  In  reference  to  the  accu- 
sation that  it  favors  Popery,  he  adds:  "Could  this  point  be  evinced  in 
a  satisfactory  manner,  it  would  allow  more  to  Popery,  on  the  score  of  anti- 
quity, thin,  in  my  opinion,  she  is  entitled  to." 


THE    FIRST    ENGLISH    BIBLE,    '  95 

in  its  errors  as  well  as  its  excellencies.  Some  portions  of 
the  Vulgate  were  executed  with  unpardonable  haste;  and 
in  many  points,  Jerome  was  deterred  from  doing  justice 
to  his  own  scholarship, by  the  storm  of  calumny  and  abuse 
brought  upon  him  by  his  deviations  from  the  defective 
versions  then  in  popular  use.  In  such  cases,  there  was  no 
help  for  Wickliffe,  except  where  Jerome  was  courageous 
enough  to  protest  against  his  own  translation  in  his  notes. 
In  the  course  of  ten  centuries,  moreover,  the  text  of  the 
Vulgate  itself  had  suffered  much  from  the  carelessness  or 
tbe  arbitrary  alterations  of  its  monkish  transcribers;  and 
though  repeated  attempts  had  been  made  for  restoring  it, 
the  Latin  Bibles  of  the  fourteenth  century  were  far  from 
being  a  perfect  representation  of  the  original  work.  It  is 
plain  that  a  version,  executed  under  these  circumstances, 
could  only  serve  a  temporary  purpose,  and  must  give 
place  to  auother  when  the  advance  of  learning  should 
restore  the  sacred  originals  to  the  hands  of  christian 
scholars. 

But  Wickliffe's  Bible  has  a  glory  which  cannot  be 
affected  by  its  critical  deficiencies.  Its  appearance  was 
the  virtual  settlement  of  the  great  question  of  Christendom  : 
"  Shall  the  people  have  the  Scriptures  ?"  It  was  the 
prophecy  and  the  earnest  of  Protestantism. 

Soon  after  the  completion  of  this  great  work,-  Wickliffe 
was  summoned  from  the  toils  and  conflicts  of  life.  On  the 
29th  of  December,  1384,  as  he  was  performing  divine  ser- 
vice in  the  church  at  Lutterworth,  he  was  seized  with 
paralysis ;  and  after  lingering  two  or  three  days  in  a  state 
of  unconsciousness,  the  great  soul  which  had  struggled  so 
long  and  so  bravely  against  the  hosts  of  darkness,  awoke 
in  the  joy  of  its  Lord. 


96  THE    ENGLISH    BIBLE. 

Within  four  years  from  his  death,  a  revision  of  his 
translation  was  given  to  the  public  by  his  most  intimate 
pupil  and  friend,  John  Purvey,  being  executed,  no  doubt, 
in  obedience  to  his  own  injunctions.  The  alterations  are 
confined  mainly  to  those  portions  of  the  Old  Testament 
ascribed  to  Wickliffe's  chief  coadjutor.  Dr.  Nicholas  Here- 
ford— a  good  scholar  according  to  his  age,  but  too  literal 
and  stiff  in  his  renderings.  The  remaining  books  of  the  Old 
Testament,  and  the  whole  of  the  New,  were  touched  with 
caution,  and  retained  almost  unchanged  the  first  impress 
of  the  master-hand. 


CHAPTER    X. 


INFLUENCE  OF  WICKLIFFE'S  VERSION. 

From  the  nations  speaking  the  English  tongue,  Wick- 
liffe's  version  has  claims  to  grateful  reverence,  which  have 
never  yet  been  fully  appreciated.  England's  first  Bible, 
it  was,  for  a  hundred  and  thirty  years,  her  only  one. — 
Not  only  so,  but  it  constituted  her  earliest  popular  litera- 
ture. For,  with  the  exception  of  Wickliffe's  own  writings, 
it  was  the  first  book  of  any  magnitude  ever  written  in  the 
English  language.  The  noble  Saxon  of  our  forefathers, 
displaced  at  the  Conquest,  by  Latin  as  the  language  of 
books,  and  by  Norman-French  as  that  of  polite  life,  be- 
came the  badge  of  degradation  and  servitude.  The 
English,  into  which  it  gradually  changed,  by  a  mixture 
with  Latin  and  French,  had,  in  process  of  time,  so  far  re- 
gained the  ancient  rights  of  the  vernacular,  as  to  be,  at  this 
period,  the  spoken  language  of  the  great  body  of  the  people. 
Yet  in  such  contempt  was  it  still  held,  that  scarcely  an  at- 
tempt had  been  made  to  use  it  in  composition,  till  Wickliffe, 
with  his  great  heart  of  love  for  the  people,  laid  hold  of  it 

6 


98  THE    ENGLISH    BIBLE. 

as  tLe  vebicle  of  religious  instruction.  He  took  the  rude 
elements  directly  from  the  lips  of  the  despised  ploughmen, 
mechanics,  and  tradesmen.  He  gave  it  back  to  them  in  all 
its  unadorned,  picturesque  simplicity ;  but  fused  by  the 
action  of  his  powerful  mind  into  a  fitting  instrument  of 
thought,  and  enriched  with  the  noblest  literature  which 
the  world  has  produced ;  the  utterances  of  inspired  poets, 
prophets,  and  apostles,  the  inimitable  histories,  narratives, 
and  portraitures,  through  which  divine  wisdom  has  told  the 
sublime  story  of  providence  and  redemption. 
*  What  seeds  were  those  then  sown  in  the  virgin  soil  of 
the  common  English  mind  !  What  must  have  been  the 
quickening  of  intellectual  life,  in  a  community  where  the 
Book  of  books  furnished  almost  the  only  aliment  of  the 
hungry  soul  !  Were  not  the  children  eager  to  read  for 
themselves  those  wondrous  stories  ?  Did  not  the  ear  of 
age  forget  its  deafness,  to  hear  the  glad  tidings  of  a  Sa- 
viour and  a  future  rest  ?  Would  not  a  new  consciousness 
of  worth  steal  into  the  soul  of  the  rude  clown,  when  he 
learned  what  God  had  done  to  redeem  him  ?  The  more 
deeply  we  enter  into  the  circumstances  and  spirit  of  the 
times,  the  stronger  will  grow  the  conviction,  that  this  first 
English  Bible  must  have  been  like  an  awakening  breath 
from  heaven,  the  beginning  of  days  to  the  common  people 
of  England. 

As  has  been  remarked  before,  no  book  before  the  inven- 
tion of  printing,  ever  had  such  advantages  for  becoming 
widely  known.  Wickliff"e,  the  great  practical  reformer, 
with  his  thorough  knowledge  of  all  classes  of  English 
society,  had  not  urged  through  this  gigantic  task  as  a  mere 
experiment.  He  had  his  eye  on  a  definite,  practicable  re- 
sult, the  means  for  accomplishing  which  were  in  his  own 


INFLUENCE    OF    WICKLIFFe's    \'EK,SI0N.  99 

hands.  Aside  from  the  demand  for  the  Scriptures,  excited 
by  his  general  influence  during  a  long  public  career,  he 
had  at  commiuid  one  of  the  most  effective  agencies  of 
modern  publication.  The  active,  hardy,  itinerant  preachers 
whom  he  had.  sent  out  to  proclaim,  by  word  of  mouth,  glad 
tidings  to  the  poor,  who  had  threaded  every  part  of  Eng- 
land, and  become  intimately  acquainted  with  the  character 
and  wants  of  its  population,  now  formed  a  band  of  colpoe.- 
TEURS  for  the  written  word.  They  knew  in  what  far-off 
hamlets,  pious  souls  were  counting  the  days  to  the  return 
of  their  missionary,,  and  pining  for  the  bread  of  life  ;  what 
thinking  merchants  and  tradesmen  in  the  great  towns, 
what  honorable  men  and  women  among  the  country  gentry, 
were  eager  to  search  the  Scriptures,  whether  these  things 
were  so.  Several  copyists,  no  doubt,  had  kept  pace  with  the 
progress  of  the  translation ;  and  as  fast  as  a  few  chapters,  or 
a  book  was  completed,  these  faithful  agents  would  make 
known  the  priceless  treasure  in  the  homes  of  the  people. — 
Many  a  touching  scene  might  be  imagined,  of  rustic 
groups  by  the  wayside,  in  the  churchyard,  or  around  the 
peat  fire  at  evening,  listening  for  the  first  time  to  the 
words  of  the  Bible  in  their  mother  tongue.  Then,  how 
would  the  beautifully  written  manuscript  be  passed  round, 
from  hand. to  hand,  to  be  admired  and  wondered  at;  and 
not  seldom  to  be  wet  with  tears  from  eyes  that  beheld  for 
the  first  time,  in  English  characters,  the  name  of  Jesus! 
Nor  would  the  missionary  be  suffered  to  depart,  before  a 
copy,  of  at  least  some  portion,  had  been  obtained.  If  no 
professional  copyist  was  to  be  found,  hands  all  unused  to 
the  labor  of  the  pen  would  scrawl  painfully  a  rude  trans- 
cript of  a  Psalm,  of  the  Ten  Commandments,  a  few  chap- 
ters of  the  Gospels,  or  of  raul's  epistles,  to  remain  as  a 


100  THE    ENGLISH    BIBLE. 

lamp  of  heavenly  light,  when  the  living  preacher  had  de- 
parted. It  is  a  fact  of  intensest  interest  and  significance, 
that  numerous  fragments  of  this  kind  were  subsequently 
found  among  the  Lollards.  True,  a  large  majority  of  the 
middle  and  lower  ranks,  must  have  depended  for  their 
knowledge  of  the  holy  oracles  on  the  ear  alone.  But 
when  the  memory  is  little  occupied,  and  the  heart  writes 
the  lesson  on  its  tablets,  much  of  the  very  language  of  Scrip- 
ture may  even  thus  be  handed  down,  unimpaired,  through 
successive  generations.  The  truth  of  this  is  abundantly 
verified  in  the  history  of  Wickliflfe's  later  followers,  as 
sketched  in  the  second  part  of  this  work. 

When  first  sent  abroad,  moreover,  the  version  enjoyed  the 
sunshine  of  royal  favor,  in  the  person  of  Anne  of  Bohemia, 
the  accomplished  wife  of  Richard  II.,  who  was  herself  a 
devoted  student  and  advocate  of  the  Scriptures.  Though 
she  was  soon  withdrawn  by  death,  yet  in  the  Providence 
of  God,  nearly  twenty  years  elapsed  before  its  progress  was 
materially  checked  by  persecution.  It  needs  no  documents 
to  assure  us  that  during  this  period,  copies  must  have  been 
rapidly  multiplied  and  difi"used  far  and  wide  over  England. 
The  hundred  and  seventy  copies,  more  or  less  complete, 
which  have  come  down  to  our  own  time,  are  the  index  of 
many  times  that  number  which  perished  by  use,  by  acci- 
dent, or  by  the  flames  of  Romish  bonfires. 

But  we  have  more  direct  evidence ;  the  testimony 
of  contemporaneous  opposers  of  vernacular  translations. 
The  language  of  Knyghton,  a  distinguished  writer  of 
the  Romish  Church,  recognizes  the  firm  hold  it  had  secured 
of  the  public  miud,  but  a  short  time  after  the  death  of 
the  translator.  "  The  Gospel,"  says  he,  "  which  Christ 
committed  to  the  Clergy  and  Doctors  of  the  church,  that 


INFLUENCE    OF    WICKLIFFE's    VERSION.  101 

they  might  siccetly  dispe^ise  it  to  the  laity ^  according  to 
the  exigency  of  the  times  and  the  wants  of  men,  this 
Master  John  Wickliffe  has  translated  into  the  Anglic 
(not  Angelic)*  tongue;  thereby  making  it  more  open  and 
common  to  the  laity,  and  to  women  who  can  read,  than 
formerly  it  was  to  the  best  instructed  among  the  clergy. 
And  thus  the  Gospel  pearl  is  cast  forth,  and  is  trodden 
under  foot  of  swine ;  and  what  was  once  reverenced  by 
clergy  and  laity  is  become,  as  it  were,  the  common  jest  of 
"both  ;  and  the  jewel  of  the  clergy,  their  peculiar  treasure, 
is  made  forever  common  to  the  laity." 

The  rapid  spread  among  all  classes  of  the  laity,  of 
"Wickliffe's  sentiments  in  regard  to  the  Papacy,  fully  jus- 
tified the  apprehensions  of  the  clergy.  The  House  of 
Commons  was  so  infected  with  the  dangerous  principles  of 
religious  liberty,  as  to  render  it  a  very  uncomfortable 
instrument  to  manage ;  and  even  among  the  nobles  a  con- 
siderable number  took  decided  ground  on  the  same  side. 
The  dreaded  weapon  of  ridicule  came  freely  into  play  in 
the  conflict,  and  did  its  usual  execution.  Pasquinades, 
satirizing  the  ignorance  and  vices  of  the  clergy,  were  posted 
up  at  St.  Paul's,  and  other  public  places,  and  were  soon  in 
the  mouths  of  the  whole  populace. 

Had  the  tide  of  popular  feeling  received  no  check,  the 
emancipation  of  England  from  the  Papal  yoke  might  have 
been  anticipated  by  more  than  a  century.  But  the  Kefor- 
mation  would  probably  have  been  to  a  fatal  degree  unsound 
and  superficial.  There  was  first  a  work  to  be  done  in  the 
nation's  heart. 

In  1395,  during  Richard's  absence  for  the  conquest  of 

*  A  taunt  upon  tho  despised  vernacular,  as  too  rude  and  uncouth  for  such 
a  purpose. 


102  THE    ENGLISH    BIBLE. 

Ireland,  the  aspect  of  public  opinion  became  so  alarming 
tbat  the  prelates  dispatched  messengers  entreating  his 
return  without  delay,  "  As  soon,"  says  a  contemporary 
popish  historian,  "  as  he  heard  the  report  of  the  commis- 
sioners, being  inspired  by  the  Divine  Spirit,  he  hastened 
back,  thinking  it  more  necessary  to  defend  the  church  than 
to  conquer  kingdoms."  His  stringent  measures  towards 
the  offending  nobles,  soon  reduced  them  to  submission ; 
many  others,  of  course,  followed  in  their  wake,  and  the 
cause  exchanged  the  prestige  of  success  and  distinguished 
patronage  for  the  humiliation  of  defeat.  When,  in  1399, 
Henry  IV.,  son  of  the  Duke  of  Lancaster  Wickliffe's 
former  friend,  succeeded  to  the  throne,  the  hopes  of  the 
party  revived.  But  Henry's  title  needed  the  support  of 
the  clergy,  and  the  price  of  their  aid  was  the  sacrifice  of  the 
cause,  of  which  both  his  father  and  himself  had  once  been 
advocates.  His  first  act  was  to  send  a,  messenger  to  an 
ecclesiastical  assembly,  then  in  session  at  St.  Paul's, 
"  begging  the  prayers  of  the  church  for  the  King  and  King- 
dom, and  promising  that  he  would  protect  the  clergy  in  all 
their  liberties  and  immunities,  and  assist  them  with  all  his 
power  in  exterminating  heretics."  He  kept  his  word  but 
too  faithfully. 

It  was  a  bitter  but  wholesome  disappointment.  The 
political  enthusiasm,  that  mere  transient  reflection  of  the 
true  light  from  worldly  minds,  soon  died  out  under  the 
cruel  persecutions  which  followed  ;  but  the  religious  prin- 
ciple grew  strong  in  the  good  and  honest  hearts, who  loved 
the  truth  because  it  was  of  God.  During  the  next  quar- 
ter of  a  century,  "  the  flower  of  martyrdom,"  of  which 
Wickliffe  had  spoken,  was  won  by  a  noble  line  of  Chris- 
tian heroes,  representing  widely  separated  classes  of  society. 


INFLUENCE    OF    WICKLIFFe's    VERSION  103 

Thomas  Badby,  the  tailor;  John  Claydon,  the  farrier; 
Thorpe  and  Sawtree,  the  learned  clergymen ;  Cobham,  the 
mirror  of  chivalry  and  manly  piety,  stand  side  by  side,  as 
equal  champions  for  the  faith  of  Christ;  while  a  multitude  en- 
dured trials  of  cruel  mockings,- and  scourgings,  and  imprison- 
ment in  loathsome  dungeons,  whose  names  are  lost  on  earth. 
Throughout  this  period,  the  books  of  Wickliffe,  and 
especially  his  translation  of  the  Bible,  are  recognized  as 
the  grand  source  of  heresy.  The  statute  of  1401 ,  procured 
by  Archbishop  Arundel,  made  the  possession  of  any  of  his 
writings  punishable  by  death  at  the  stake.  In  1408,  it 
was  decreed  by  the  clergy  in  convocation  assembled,  "that 
no  school-master  should  hereafter  mix  religious  instruction 
with  the  teaching  of  youth,  nor  permit  discussion  about 
the  sacraments,  nor  the  reading  of  the  Scriptures  in  Eng- 
lish ;  that  books  of  this  sort,  written  by  John  Wickliffe,  and 
others  of  his  time,  should  be  banished  from  schools,  halls,  and 
all  places  whatsoever  ;  that  no  man  hereafter  should  trans- 
late any  part  of  Scripture  into  English  on  his  own  authority ; 
and  that  all  persons  convicted  of  making  or  using  such 
translations  should  be  punished  as  favorers  of  error  and 
heresy."  In  1417,  the  right  of  sanctuary  allowed  to 
the  highway  robber  and  murderer,  was  denied  by  a  formal 
act  of  parliament,  to  men  whose  only  crime  was  that  of 
reading  the  Scriptures  in  English.  What  better  proof 
than  these  measures  could  be  asked,  of  the  wide  diffusion 
and  influence  of  Wickliffe's  Bible  ?  Under  the  action  of 
the  statute  last  mentioned,  so  many  were  implicated  in  Lon- 
don and  elsewhere,  and  so  serious  were  the  confiscations  of 
property,  that  the  King  himself  (Henry  V.,)  was  obliged 
to  interpose,  and  hold  the  ofiicers  of  the  law  in  check  by 
royal  authority. 


104  THE    ENGLISH    BIBLE. 

During  the  political  agitations  of  the  reign  of  Henry  VI., 
public  attention  was  effectually  diverted  from  religious 
controversy,  and  the  Lollards  gradually  disappear  from 
the  page  of  history.  A  night  of  ignorance,  priestly 
tyranny,  superstition  and  social  disorder,  a  night  whose 
gross  darkness  was  hardly  equalled  by  any  that  had  pre- 
ceded it,  settled  down  on  England.  But  the  followers  of 
Wickliffe  were  not  extinct,  nor  had  the  Book  perished 
whence  they  drew  thei'*  life.  Driven  from  the  higher 
classes,  truth  had  taken  refuge  among  the  unnoticed  poor, 
and  in  silence  and  obscurity  was  nurturing  the  influences, 
which  were  to  ensure  her  triumph  in  the  happier  times  to 
jome.  The  light  which  Wickliffe  had  kindled,  often 
smothered,  then  hidden  from  public  view,  but  never  for  a 
moment  extinguished,  at  length  mingled  its  beams  with 
the  full  day  of  the  Reformation. 

But  this  ancient  version  has  yet  another  claim  on  our 
regard.  It  furnished,  for  all  time,  the  type  and  pattern 
of  The  English  Bible.  In  the  century  and  a  half,  dur- 
ing which  it  was  the  well-spring  of  the  religious  life  of 
England — that  long,  dark  day,  when  persecution  kept  the 
flock  of  Christ  fast  by  the  source  of  strength  and  conso- 
lation— its  homely,  child-like,  expressive  phraseology  had 
become  too  deeply  hallowed  in  the  English  mind  as  the 
medium  of  inspiration,  ever  again  to  be  dissevered  from  it. 
A  comparison  with  the  subsequent  versions  which  have  found 
favor  with  the  common  people,  will  show  them  to  be.  In  this 
respect,  all  offsprings  of  this  parent-stock.  Improved  in 
many  important  particulars,  so  as  to  reflect  with  greater 
exactness  the  sense  of  the  inspired  originals,  they  are  yet 
substantially,  in  form  and  manner,  but  reproductions  of 
that  in  which  our  unlettered  forefathers  first  read  the  reve- 


INFLUENCE    OF    WICKLIFFe's    VERSION.  105 

lation  of  God.  Nay,  I  think  it  will  be  the  feeling  of  many 
readers,  that,  while  they  are  thus  superior  in  correctness 
and  in  adaptation  to  more  cultivated  periods ;  yet,  in 
graphic,  nervous  force,  in  a  certain  untamed  vigor,  and  a 
raciness  of  flavor  which  belongs  to  the  youth  of  language, 
the  patriarchal  version  has  never  been  quite  equalled.  It 
was,  to  use  Lord  Bacon's  beautiful  illustration  of  a  kindred 
point,  "  the  first  crush  of  the  grapes  When,  moreover, 
we  remark  how  intelligible  it  remains  to  the  present  day, 
how  much  more  near  is  its  phraseology  to  our  own  lan- 
guage of  common  life  than  that  even  of  Chaucer,  we  can 
hardly  avoid  the  conclusion  that  it  was  this  book,  pre-emi- 
nently, which  gave  shape  and  fashion  to  our  mother  tongue, 
and  by  its  continually  increasing  spread,  gradually  moulded 
into  permanent  uniformity  the  language  of  the  people. 

Thus,  in  a  threefold  sense,  did  England's  first  Bible  be- 
come the.central  point  of  English  history.  The  tree  which 
Wickliffe  planted,  has  clasped  with  its  ever-lengthening 
roots  the  life  of  five  centuries. 


CHAPTER  XI. 


WIOKLIFFE'S  INFLUENCE  ABROAD. 

But  it  was  not  in  England  alone  that  Wickliffe's  influ- 
ence was  felt,  on  the  errors  of  the  age.  The  religious  inte- 
rests of  Bohemia,  lay  near  the  heart  of  the  eillightened 
and  pious  Queen  Anne ;  and  under  her  auspices,  the  Re- 
former's writings  had  early  been  carried,  in  great  numbers, 
into  her  native  country.  His  opinions  were  received  with 
favor  by  the  reigning  king  and  queen,  became  the  subject  of 
free  discussion  in  the  University  of  Prague,  and  spread  wide- 
ly among  the  common  people.  In  the  year  1400,  in  accord- 
ance with  his  great  principle,  the  Scriptures  were  trans- 
lated into  Bohemian,  making  the  second  vernacular  trans- 
lation of  modern  Europe.*  In  1404,  the  celebrated  John 
Huss  became  a  convert  to  these  views ;  and  from  his  ar- 
dent spirit  the  movement  received  an  impulse,  which, 
within  twenty-five  years  after  the  death  of  "Wickliffe,  had 
moved  all  Bohemia  with  his  sentiments,  and  threatened 

*This,  though  not  noticed  by  Vaughan  in  his  Life  of  Wickliffe,  is  one  of 
the  most  interesting  events  connected  with  his  labors  and  influence. 


wickliffe's  influence  abroad.  107 

an  entire  subversion  of  the  Romish  power.  The  impor- 
tance of  these  events  can  only  be  rightly  estimated,  by 
taking  into  the  account  the  mental  activity,  and  force  of 
character,  which  distinguished  the  Bohemians  as  a  people, 
and  the  high  intelligence  and  liberality  of  the  nobles. 
Prague  was  not  only  the  most  populous,  wealthy,  and 
splendid  city  in  Germany,  but  the  acknowledged  centre 
of  the  arts  and  sciences.  Defection  from  the  Papacy,  at 
this  point,  involved  far  more  than  the  loss  of  Bohemia. 
A  light  kindled  on  this  eminence,  must  shine  far  and  wide 
over  the  surrounding  nations. 

In  1408,  the  Archbishop  of  Prague  seized,  and  com- 
mitted to  the  flames,  some  two  hundred  volumes  of  the 
English  Reformer's  writings.  These  belonged  mostly  to 
members  of  the  University,  and  were,  of  course,  but  a 
small  part  of  the  number  in  the  country.*  In  1409,  Pope 
Alexander  V.  issued  a  bull  to  the  government  of  Bohe- 
mia, requiring  the  suppression,  by  the  most  stringent 
methods,  of  all  teaching  of  Wickliffe's  doctrines.  His 
successor,  John  XXIII. ,  cited  Huss  to  appear  before  him 
at  Rome;  and  this  being  declined,  excommunicated  him, 
and  laid  the  city  of  Prague  under  an  interdict. 

At  this  crisis,  Jerome  of  Prague,  came  forward  to  de- 
fend the  persecuted  reformer,  and  to  sustain  the  cause  for 
which  he  suffered.  Jerome  had  studied  at  Oxford,  where, 
probably,  he  first  imbibed  Wickliffe's  sentiments ;  and  in 
Paris,  he  became  known  as  their  advocate,  in  a  public  con- 
troversy with  the  celebrated  Romish  theologian,  Gerson. 
On  his  return  to  Bohemia,  he  was  imprisoned  in  Vienna, 
as  a  favorer  of  Wickliffe's  doctrines  ;  but  was  released  at 
the  intercession  of  the  University  of  Prague,  where  he  was 

*  Vauffhan. 


108  THE    ENGLISH    BIBLE. 

held  in  the  highest  esteem  for  his  genius  and  learning. 

He  now  stood  forth  boldly,  as  the  leader  in  the  conflict, 
and  took  even  higher  ground  against  the  doctrines  and 
government  of  the  Papal  church  than  Huss  himself.  Op- 
position only  fanned  the  rising  flame ;  and  the  continual 
conflict  of  opinion  led  all  classes,  more  and  more,  to  a 
Btudy  of  the  Holy  Scriptures,  as  the  only  reliable  standard 
of  truth. 

Things  were  in  this  condition,  when  the  famous  Council 
of  Constance  was  assembled,  in  the  city  from  which  it  takes 
its  name.  Its  object  was,  in  part,  the  termination  of  the 
scandalous  quarrel  of  the  three  rival  Popes,  which  was  fast 
undermining  the  credit  of  St.  Peter's  chair ;  in  part,  the 
suppression,  by  some  adequate  measures,  of  the  alarming 
growth  of  "Wickliffe's  sentiments  in  Christendom.  This 
Council  was  one  of  the  most  imposing  ever  convoked  by 
the  Romish  church.  It  numbered  among  its  members 
and  attendants,  a  German  Emperor,  twenty  princes,  one 
hundred  and  forty  counts,  a  pope,  more  than  twenty  car- 
dinals, seven  patriarchs,  twenty  archbishops,  ninety-one 
bishops,  six  hundred  other  prelates,  and  about  four  thou- 
sand priests.  Its  deliberations  extended  from  the  year 
1414  to  1418. 

The  acts  by  which  this  great  assembly  are  chiefly  known 
to  posterity,  are  the  deposition  of  three  infallible  popes, 
followed  by  the  election  of  a  fourth;  the  burning  of 
John  Huss  and  Jerome  at  the  stake,  and  the  decrees 
against  the  writings  of  ■\^icklifie.  Huss  had  been  decoyed 
to  Constance,  by  the  promise  of  being  allowed  to  defend 
his  opinions  before  the  assembled  clergy  of  Christendom ; 
but,  in  violation  of  a  safe-conduct  from  the  hand  of  the 
Emperor  Sigismund,  he  was  put  to  death,  in  July,  1415 


wickliffe's  influence  abroad.  109 

Jerome  having  ventured  into  the  vicinity,  in  hope  of  aid- 
ing his  beloved  and  revered  brother,  was  likewise  seized, 
and  after  a  long  imprisonment,  followed  him  to  the  stake. 
But  the  truth  had  taken  too  deep  root  in  Bohemia,  to 
perish  by  such  means.  The  assembled  dignitaries  of  the  Ro- 
mish church  had  beheld,  with  amazement,  Bohemian  nobles 
and  citizens  reasoning  before  them,  with  no  less  learning 
than  boldness,  from  the  word  of  God.  A  cause  thus  advo- 
cated, has  ceased  to  depend  on  leaders. 

John  Wickliffe  had  the  honor  of  being  recognized,  by 
this  august  assembly,  as  tlie  source  of  all  the  influences 
which  had  thus  turned  the  world  upside  down.  Among 
its  earliest  acts,  fifty-five  articles  from  his  writings,  which 
had  already  been  condemned  in  England,  Rome,  and 
Prague,  now  received  the  solemn  ban  of  the  Council ; 
and  subsequently,  it  is  said,  two  hundred  and  sixty 
more  were  condemned  in  like  manner.  His  works  of 
every  kind,  and  wherever  found,  were  adjudged  to  the 
flames. 

Not  satisfied  with  these  measures,  the  Council,  before 
closing,  passed  a  sentence  on  his  dead  body,  directing  that 
it  should  be  disinterred,  and  burnt  to  ashes,  as  an  expres- 
sion of  the  abhorrence  in  which  his  doctrines  and  his  mem- 
ory were  held  by  Holy  Church.  The  decree  was  executed 
in  1428,  when  Archbishop  Chichely,  Primate  of  England, 
himself  went  down  to  Lutterworth,  attended  by  a  large 
train  of  the  English  clergy,  to  superintend  the  ceremony. 
From  beneath  the  humble  chancel,  where  they  had  slept 
in  peace  more  than  forty  years,  the  bones  of  the  Reformer 
were  dragged  rudely  forth  to  the  light  of  day  ;  and  being 
carried  down  the  hill  on  which  the  church  stood,  to  a  little 


no  THE    ENGLISH   BIBLE. 

stream  called  tlie  Swift,  were  there  consumed  by  fire,  and 
the  ashes  thrown  into  the  river. 

The  enemies  of  truth  took  this  as  a  presage  of  the 
speedy  and  final  destruction  of  Wickliife's  influence.  But 
they  were  false  seers.  "  The  Swift,"  says  quaint  old 
Fuller,  "  conveyed  his  ashes  into  the  Avon,  Avon  into  the 
Severn,  Severn  into  the  narrow  seas,  they  to  the  main 
ocean.  And  thus  they  are  the  emblem  of  his  doctrine,  which 
now  is  dispersed  all  the  world  over."  In  Bohemia,  the 
progress  of  his  opinions  was  only  accelerated  by  the  cruel 
and  treacherous  dealing  of  the  Council ;  and  during  the 
entire  fifteenth  and  sixteenth  centuries,  this  favored  country 
exhibited  a  shining  example  of  the  power  of  Bible  Chris- 
tianity, to  call  forth  the  energies,  as  well  as  to  exalt  the 
morals  of  a  nation.  Fourteen  translations  of  the  whole 
Bible,  besides  ten  of  the  New  Testament,  which  have  come 
down  to  this  day,  bear  witness  to  the  zeal  of  her  Christian 
scholars.  She  had  her  printed  Bible  fifty  years  before 
England.  Education  was  common  to  her  whole  popula- 
tion, and  the  arts  and  sciences  were  brought  to  a  remark- 
able perfection.  When  in  1620,  during  the  progress  of  the 
thirty  years'  war,  Bohemia  lost  her  nationality,  three-fourths 
of  her  population  were  Protestant ;  and  seventy  thousand 
men,  with  nearly  the  whole  nobility,  the  entire  body  of  the 
Protestant  clergy,  scholars,  and  artists,  and  in  general,  the 
most  cultivated  j)art  of  the  nation,  went  forth  as  voluntary 
exiles,  preferring  rather  to  renounce  their  country  than 
their  religion.  The  monks  from  Spain,  Italy,  and  South- 
ern Germany,  who  poured  into  the  subjugated  country, 
found  it  a  toilsome  labor  to  restore  the  ancient  reign  of 
darkness.  Every  Bohemian  book  was  condemned  as  pre- 
sumptively heretical.     There  were  individuals  who  boasted 


wickliffe's  influence  abroad.  Ill 

of  having  burnt  sixty  thousand  manuscripts,  the  precious 
relics  of  her  early  popular  and  sacred  literature.  Such 
works  as  were  saved  from  the  flames,  were  shut  up  in  mo- 
nasteries, in  secure  rooms  guarded  by  iroc  grates,  doors, 
locks,  bolts,  and  chains,  and  often  inscribed  with  the  warn- 
ing title,  Hell.  A  clearer  exemplification  of  the  influence 
and  aim  of  the  two  religions,  could  hardly  be  found  in  his- 
tory. 

It  is  easy  to  see  what  must  have  been  the  influence  of 
this  people,  during  their  long  period  of  prosperity,  and 
how  essentially  it  must  have  contributed  towards  prepar- 
ing the  way  for  the  great  work  of  the  sixteenth  century. 
The  reformation  of  Huss  flowed  into  that  of  Luther  ;  and 
when  the  latter  reached  England,  its  waters  mingled  with 
that  earlier  stream,  whose  sources  we  have  traced  in  the 
personal  labors  of  WicklifFe. 

The  mind  stands  amazed  over  the  view  thus  opened,  of 
the  mighty  consequences  to  mankind,  flowing  from  the  life 
of  a  single  individual.  If  any  thing  could  surprise  us 
more,  it  would  be  that  party  spirit  could  have  caused  such 
services  to  humanity  to  be  forgotten,  and  the  very  exist- 
ence  of  the  apostle  of  modern  Christianity,  to  become  almost 
a  myth  in  the  land  of  his  birth.  But  as  certainly  as  truth 
is  to  triumph,  and  the  last  vestige  of  priestcraft  to  disap- 
pear before  the  light  of  the  pure  word  of  God,  the  name 
of  John  WicklifFe  will  brighten  as  the  ages  pass,  and  the 
beautiful  eulogy  of  the  martyrologist  be  accepted  as  no  more 
than  justice  to  his  character  and  labors  :  "  This  is  out  of 
all  doubt,  that  at  what  time  all  the  world  was  in  most  des- 
perate and  vile  estate,  and  that  the  lamentable  ignorance 
and  darkness  of  God's  truth  had  overshadowed  the  whole 
earth,  this  man  stepped  out  like  a  valiant  champion ;  unto 


112  THE   ENGLISH    BIBLE. 

whom  may  justly  be  applied,  that  is  spoken  in  the  book  of 
Ecclesiasticus,  of  one  Simon,  the  son  of  Onias :  '  Even  as 
the  morning  star  being  in  the  midst  of  a  cloud,  and  as  the 
moon  being  full  in  her  course,  and  as  the  bright  beams  of 
the  sun,  so  doth  he  shiue  and  glister  in  the  temple  and 
church  of  God.'  » 


]?lEf    ^SGOIB. 


%^t  d  §il)Ie  STninsIaltoii;  in  ^iiglaiii. 


l.GT-ozeUer.lith.. 


IS-TMIDJ^ILII. 


Tower.?  AWeller  ?r  ' 


ff 


CHAPTER  1, 


KELIGIOUS  ASPECTS  OF  ENGLAND. 

A  CENTURY  and  a  half  had  now  elapsed  since  Wickliffe 
gave  England  her  first  Bible.  During  this  whole  period, 
the  Church,  backed  by  the  State,  had  made  it  a  steady  aim 
to  root  out  the  tendencies  which  he  had  implanted  in  the 
common  English  mind.  Yet,  at  the  beginning  of  the  six- 
teenth century,  we  find  them  still  existing  in  all  their  liv- 
ing energy  among  the  Lollards.  The  "  voluntary  system" 
had  proved  adequate  to  the  perpetuation  of  an  order  of 
devoted,  working  ministers,  "  willing  to  endure  all  things 
for  the  elect's  sake;"  men,  who  from  pure  love  for  souls, 
made  a  joyful  sacrifice  of  worldly  gain  and  ease,  and  went 
forth,  at  the  hazard  of  their  lives,  to  preach  the  Gospel  to 
the  poor.  Many  shires  of  England  were  acquainted  with 
the  toil-worn,  weather-beaten  forms  of  these  humble  apos- 
tles of  Bible  piety ;  and  about  the  time  of  Henry  VIII's 
accession,  numerous  little  congregations  of  "  Brethren  in 
Christ,''''  (so  they  called  themselves,)  were  existing  in  dif- 
ferent parts  of  the  kingdom  as  the  fruit  of  their  labors. — 


116  THE    ENGLISH   BIBLE. 

Being  almost  wholly  from  the  lower  classes,  and  taught  by 
former  persecutions  to  'observe  the  greatest  caution  and 
secrecy,  the  timid  flock  had  grown  and  multiplied  unde- 
tected by  their  powerful  foes. 

At  this  period,  they  seem  to  have  enjoyed  a  fresh  access 
of  spiritual  life.  Thomas  Mann,  one  of  their  preachers, 
who  died  for  heresy  in  1518,  is  reported  in  the  bishop's 
record  of  his  trial  as  "  confessing  that  he  hath  turned  seven 
hundred  people  to  his  religion;  for  which  he  thanketh  God." 
Such  was  their  increase  in  zeal  and  numbers,  that  they 
could  no  longer  escape  observation.  They  were  tracked  to 
the  lonely,  unfrequented  spots  where  they  met  under  cover 
of  night  to  worship  God  ;  neighbor  was  made  spy  on  neigh- 
bor ;  husbands  and  wives,  parents  and  children,  brothers 
and  sisters,  were  beguiled  or  forced  to  bear  witness  against 
each  other.  The  Lollards  Tower  again  echoed  with  the 
clanking  of  chains ;  the  rack  and  the  stake  once  more 
claimed  their  victims.  But  those  dark  days  of  tears  and 
blood  have  left  a  precious  memorial  for  after  times,  fur- 
nished by  the  very  hands  which  were  striving  to  blot  '  this 
pestilent  sect'  from  the  face  of  the  earth.  From  the  regis- 
ters of  the  bishops,  before  whom  those  accused  of  heresy 
were  tried,  has  been  gathered  a  long  list  of  lowly  martyrs 
and  confessors  who,  but  for  these  cruel  persecutors,  would 
never  have  been  heard  of  out  of  the  plebeian  sphere  in 
which  they  were  born.  Nor  do  we  need  any  better  testi- 
mony than  is  furnished  by  these  records,  to  the  purity  both 
of  their  doctrines  and  their  lives.  A  simple,  blameless 
people,  full  of  love  and  good  works,  there  was  nothing  to 
be  found  against  them  "  save  in  the  matter  of  the  law  of 
their  God." 

What  strikes  one  with  most  surprise,  in  these  humble 


RELIGIOUS    ASPECTS    OF   ENGLAND.  117 

Christians,  is  the  identity  of  their  views  at  once  with  those 
of  Wickliflfe  and  his  immediate  followers,  and  with  those 
afterwards  known  as  the  distinguishing  traits  of  Protestant- 
ism. But  the  solution  is  easy.  It  was  because  they  all 
drew  from  one  and  the  same  source,  the  inspired  avoud 
OF  God.  Through  their  whole  history,  the  living  preacher 
and  the  written  Scripture  had  gone  hand  in  hand.  There 
is  abundant  evidence,  not  only  that  Wickliffe's  version  was 
still  preserved  among  them,  but  that  they  had  numerous 
copies  of  it  in  whole  or  in  part,  which  were  diligently  read 
by  the  families  of  common  laborers  and  mechanics. 

One  of  the  most  common  charges  against  the  Lollards 
of  this  period,  was  the  possession  of  some  portion  of  Wick- 
liffe's Bible,  and  the  ability  to  read  it,  or  to  repeat  from 
it  by  heart.  Among  those  "troubled"  as  suspected  heretics, 
between  the  years  1509  and  1517,  five  persons  were  charged 
with  having  met  together  secretly  to  read  "  certain  chapters 
of  the  Evangelists  in  English,  containing  in  theiii," — such 
was  the  sentence  of  the  learned  Bishops — "  divers  erron- 
eous and  damnable  opinions  and  conclusions  of  heresy?'' 
One  Christopher  Shoemaker,  burnt  at  Newbury,  was  ac- 
cused of  having  gone  to  the  house  of  John  Say,  and  "  read 
to  him  out  of  a  book,  the  words  which  Christ  spake  to  his 
disciples."  In  1519,  seven  martyrs  were  burned  in  one 
fire  at  Coventry,  "  for  having  taught  their  children  and 
servants  the  Lord's  prayer  and  Ten  Commandments  in 
English."  The  register  of  Longland,  Bishop  of  Lincoln, 
for  the  single  year  1521,  contains  a  list  of  some  hundred 
names^  most  of  whom  were  accused  for  reading  or  repeat- 
ing portions  of  the  Scriptures  in  the  English  language. 
Jenkin  Butler  accused  his  own  brother  of  reading  to  him 
a  certain  book  of  Scripture,  and  persuading  him  to  hearken 


118  THE   ENGLISH   BIBLE. 

to  the  same.  John  Barrett,  goldsmith  of  London,  was 
'  troubled  '  for  having  recited  to  his  wife  and  maid  the 
Epistle  of  James  without  book,  John  Thatcher  was  ac- 
cused of  teaching  Alice  Brown  this  saying  of  Jesus: — 
'  Blessed  are  they  that  hear  the  word  of  God  and  keep  it.' 
Thomas  Philip  and  Lawrence  Taylor  were  cited  for  read- 
ing the  Epistle  to  the  Romans  and  the  first  chapter  of 
Luke  in  English.  "Cuthbert,  Bishop  of  London,  sitting 
judicially  in  the  chape]  within  his  palace,  at  London,  min- 
istered in  word  against  John  Pykas,"  who  confessed  '  that 
about  five  years  last  past,  at  a  certain  time,  his  mother, 
then  dwelling  at  Bury,  sent  for  him,  and  moved  him  that 
he  should  not  believe  in  the  sacraments  of  the  church,  for 
that  was  not  the  right  way.  And  then  she  delivered  to 
him  one  book  of  Paul's  Epistles  in  English,  (manuscript); 
and  bid  him  live  after  the  manner  and  way  of  said  Epis- 
tles and  Gospels,  and  not  after  the  way  the  church  doth 
teach.'  John  Tyball  was  accused  before  this  same  bishop, 
of  having  had  '  certain  of  Paul's  Epistles  after  the  old 
translation.'  In  1529,  John  Tukesbury,  a  respectable 
citizen  and  leather  merchant,  of  the  city  of  London,  con- 
fessed to  having  in  his  possession  '  a  manuscript  copy  of 
the  Bible,  and  that  he  had  been  studying  in  the  Holy 
Scriptures  from  the  year  1512.' 

Their  supply  of  Bibles  was  indeed  scanty,  compared  with 
that  enjoyed  since  the  introduction  of  the  press ;  but  the 
lack  was  made  up  by  an  earnestness  which  could  overcome 
all  obstacles.  We  must  not  judge  of  these  awakened  minds 
and  hearts,  by  the  general  standard  of  their  class  at  the 
time.  Was  only  a  single  copy  owned  in  a  neighborhood, 
these  hard-working  laborers  and  mechanics  would  be  found 
together,  after  a  weary  day  of  toil,  alternately  reading  and 


RELIGIOUS    ASPECTS    OF    ENGLAND.  1  19 

listening  to  the  words  of  life ;  and  so  sweet  was  the  re- 
fresbment  to  their  spirits,  that  sometimes  the  moruing 
light  surprised  them  with  its  call  to  a  new  day  of  labor,  ere 
they  had  thought  of  sleep.  Their  highest  aim  was  to  be- 
come possessors  of  some  portion  of  the  sacred  volume.  One 
man  among  them  is  mentioned,  as  having  given  a  load  of 
hay  for  a  few  chapters  of  one  of  Paul's  Epistles.  Some 
devoted  the  savings  of  years  to  this  object.  They  have 
even  been  known  to  give  a  sum  equal  to  eight  or  ten 
pounds  of  our  time,  for  one  of  those  little  tracts  which 
WickliflFe  wrote  so  long  before,  for  the  instruction  and 
comfort  of  the  pious  poor. 

Bat  they  were  not  merely  superior  to  their  class.  In 
the  intelligence  of  their  belief,  in  their  sense  of  the  true 
worth  and  destiny  of  man,  in  their  thirst  for  knowledge,  as 
well  as  in  purity  of  manners  and  ardor  of  piety,  they  were, 
as  a  body,  in  advance  of  the  highest  ranks  both  of  clergy 
and  laity.  "  To  see,"  says  their  faithful  and  aifectioaate 
historian.  Fox,  ''their  travails,  their  earnest  seeking,  their 
ardent  zeal,  their  reading,  their  watching,  their  sweet  as- 
semblies, their  love  and  concord,  their  godly  living,  their 
:^aithful  marrying  with  the  faithful,  may  make  us  now,  in 
these  our  days  of  free  profession,  to  blush  for  shame." 
That  many,  who  bore  the  name  of  Lollards,  failed  in  the 
hour  of  fiery  trial  and  abjured  their  faith,  merely  proves 
that  the  influence  of  their  views  extended  far  beyond  the 
bounds  of  the  true  believers.  As  a  people,  they  were  the 
recognized  advocates,  in  a  period  of  unsurpassed  dai-kness 
and  slavery  to  priestcraft,  of  the  freedom  of  the  human 
mind,  of  the  rights  of  conscience,  and  of  the  supreme  authori- 
ty of  the  Holy  Scriptures.  To  their  influence  is  doubtless 
to  be  assigned  the  first  place,  among  the  causes  which  led 
to  the  English  Reformation. 


120  THE    ENGLISH    BIBLE. 

Turn  we  now  for  a  moment  to  the  preparation  going  on 
in  other  classes,  for  the  new  epoch  which  was  soon  to  dawn. 

In  all  her  external  relations,  England  was  still  the  most 
obedient  vassal  of  Rome.  Henry  VIII.,  by  training  a 
bigoted  adherent  of  the  church,  vied  with  the  "  most  Chris- 
tian monarchs  "  of  former  times,  in  humbling  his  kingdora 
before  the  papal  footstool.  A  golden  rose,  touched  by 
the  apostolic  finger  with  holy  chrism,  was,  in  his  esteem, 
a  full  equivalent  for  the  rich  English  benefices,  which  his 
Holiness  disposed  of  unquestioned  among  his  insatiable 
Italians.  At  no  time  had  the  clergy,  as  a  body,  been  more 
ignorant,  more  corrupt,  or  more  powerful,  or  the  great  mass 
of  the  people  more  abject  slaves  of  superstition. 

Still  the  new  day,  which  had  dawned  on  continental  Europe, 
could  not  be  wholly  shut  out.  Even  before  Luther  had 
commenced  his  reformatory  labors,  a  more  liberal  style  of 
learning  had  been  introduced  into  the  English  Universities, 
through  the  labors  of  Erasmus  and  a  few  native  scholars 
of  like  spirit.  Greek  professorships  had  been  established, 
the  New  Testament  in  the  original  was  studied  by  a  con- 
siderable number,  and  public  lectures  were  read  on  some 
portions  of  it.  Hebrew,  also,  received  some  attention. 
These  innovations  were  received  by  the  great  body  of  the 
clergy  with  anything  but  favor.  With  the  quick  instinct 
of  birds  of  night,  they  discerned,  far  off,  the  hated  approach 
of  day.  Dr.  John  Collet,  who  nobly  led  the  way  in  the 
new  path,  by  his  lectures  on  Paul's  Epistles  (delivered  at  Ox- 
ford so  early  as  1497,  "  without  fee  or  reward,")  was  in- 
terrupted by  a  prosecution  for  heresy,  instituted  by  the 
Bishop  of  London,  and  escaped  only  through  the  personal 
kindness  of  Archbishop  Warham,  who  dismissed  the  case 
without  trial.  When,  in  1516,  the  Greek  Testament  of 
Erasmus  made  its  appearance,  a  terrible  hue  and  cry  arose 


RELIGIOUS    ASPECTS    OF    ENGLAND.  121 

among  the  clergy.  Priests  used  their  influence  at  the  con- 
fessional to  warn  young  students  against  it ;  and  one  col- 
lege at  Cambridge  was  found  so  conservative  as  to  forbid 
the  dangerous  book  to  be  brought  within  its  walls.  Stan- 
dish,  afterwards  Bishop  of  Asaph,*  conjured  the  king,  on 
his  knees,  to  put  down  Erasmus.  The  monks  made  them- 
selves especially  conspicuous  by  the  zeal  of  their  opposition, 
declaring  from  the  jjulpit  that  "  there  was  now  a  new  lan- 
guage invented,  called  Greek,  of  which  people  should 
beware  as  the  source  of  all  heresies  :  that  in  this  lan":uao;e 
had  come  forth  a  book,  called  the  New  Testament,  which, 
was  now  in  everybody's  hands,  and  was  full  of  thorns  and 
briars  ;  that  there  was  also  another  language  started  up 
which  they  called  Hebrew,  and  that  they  who  learned  it 
were  turned  Jews." 

"Remember  ye  not,"  says  Tyndale  in  1531,  "how 
within  this  thirty  years,  and  far  less,  and  yet  dureth  to 
this  day,  the  old  barking  curs.  Dun's  disciples,  and  the 
like  draff,  called  Scottists,  the  children  of  darkness,  raged 
in  every  pulpit  against  Greek,  Latin,  and  Hebrew ;  and 
what  sorrow  the  schoolmasters  that  taught  the  true  Latin 
tongue,  had  with  them  ?  Some  beating  the  pulpit  with 
their  fists  for  madness,  and  roaring  out  with  open  and 
foaming  mouth,  that  if  there  were  but  one  Terence  and 
Virgil  in  the  world,  and  that  same  in  their  sleeves,  and  a 
6re  before  them,  they  would  burn  them  therein,  though  it 
should  cost  their  lives." 

But  the  spirit  of  the  age  was  too  strong  to  be  thus 
repressed.  Henry  VIII.  was  himself  ambitious  to  be 
known  as  a  scholar  and  patron   of  learning;  and  he  not 

*  Abbreviated,  Up.  a  St.  Aa.  (Episcopus  a  Sancto  Asirio,  bs  put  by 
Erasmus  in  his  Epistles.) 

6 


122  THE    EiNGLISH   BIBLE. 

only  encouraged  classical  study,  but,  in  1519,  commanded 
by  a  royal  mandate,  that  the  study  of  the  Scriptures  in 
tbe  original  languages,  should  henceforth  constitute  a  regu- 
lar branch  of  academic  instruction  at  Oxford.     His  minis- 
ter, Cardinal  Wolscy,  whose  far-sighted  intellect  perceived 
in  the  new  agencies  at  work  in  the  age,  a  power  which  might 
perhaps   be    controlled,    but    could    never   be    destroyed, 
threw  himself  into  the  vanguard  of  the  cause  of  liberal 
learnicg.     Cardinal's  College,  established  by  him  at  Oxford, 
was  a  magnificent  project  for  converting  progress  itself  into 
a  barrier  against  progress ;  for  raising  up  a  clergy  quali- 
fied by  rigid  intellectual  discipline  and  eminent  scholar- 
ship, to   snatch  from  the  reformers  the  leadership  of  the 
awakening  age.     That  college,  he  resolved,  should  be  "  the 
most  glorious  in  the  universe."     To  furnish  it  with  adequate 
endowments,  he  ejected,  by  his  authority  as  Papal  Legate, 
the  inmates  of  forty-one  priories  and  nunneries,  and  devoted 
their  riches  to  this  object,  sending  forth  their  inmates  to  seek 
a  home  in  other  establishments.     The  most  distinguished 
teachers  were  culled  in  to  add  lustre  to  the  new  foundation, 
and  its  Fellows  were  the  picked  men  of  both  universities. 
It  was  wisely  planned.     But   the   Cardinal,  with  all  his 
sagacity,  had  not  taken  into  the  reckoning,  that  the  men 
thus  trained    might  be  the  first  to  desert  the  cause    he 
sought  to  uphold.      Cardinal's  College  rose  into   sudden 
eminence  as  a  school  of  liberal  learning,  and  in  the  same 
proportion    became  a  nursery    of  the  new  opinions.     Its 
accomplished  youth,  their  minds  emancipated  by  enlarged 
enquiry,  and  their  hearts  instructed  by  the  Scriptures  in 
that  liberty  wherewith  Christ  makes  free,  devoted  them- 
selves  with   generous   ardor   to   the   cause  of  truth  and 
spiritual  freedom. 


RELIGIOUS  ASPECT  OF  ENGLAND.  123 

Meanwhile,  the  multiplication  of  books  through  the 
press,  by  promoting  general  intelligence,  had  increased  the 
disaffection  of  all  classes  towards  the  Romish  clergy. 
Voices  were  heard  to  and  from  the  people,  in  numerous 
little  treatises,  exposing  the  errors  and  vices  of  the  church. 
The  thunder  of  Luther's  tones  then  came  reverberating 
over  the  water;  and,  in  spite  of  the  vigilance  of  the  clergy, 
translations  of  his  writings  were  extensively  circulated  in 
England. 

Thus,  long  before  the  passions  of  Henry  led  to  an  exter- 
nal separation  from  Rome,  the  way  had  been  preparing  for 
a  reform  far  more  'thorough  and  comprehensive ;  a  reform 
based  on  radical  changes  in  the  opinions  and  convictions 
of  his  subjects.  To  that  true  reform,  he  was  no  less  an 
enemy  than  the  Pope  himself;  and  it  worked  its  way 
against  the  whole  force  of  his  iron  will.  Its  first  marked 
development,  the  event  which  inaugurated  the  Age  of 
Bible  Translation  in  England,  will  form  the  subject  of 
the  next  chapter. 


CHAPTER    II. 


TYND ALE'S  NEW  TESTAMENT. 

After  the  view  just  given  of  the  influences  at  work  in 
England,  it  can  be  no  matter  of  surprise,  to  find  the  design 
of  a  new  translation  of  the  Scriptures  already  ripened  in 
the  bosom  of  an  English  scholar,  years  before  Luther  be- 
gan the  publication  of  the  Bible  in  German.  That  scholar 
was  William  Tyndale. 

Tyudale  was  bora  about  the  year  1484,  and  at  a  very 
early  age  was  sent  to  Oxford,  which  was  one  of  the  most 
celebrated  schools  of  learning  then  existing.  Here  he  soon 
attained  high  rank,  and  was  particularly  distinguished  for 
his  knowledge  of  the  tongues.  But  though  a  proficient  iu 
classical  literature,  his  most  diligent  study  was  given  to 
the  Greek  New  Testament,  in  which,  also,  he  was  accus- 
tomed to  read  to  his  fellow  students.  There  is  even  strong 
reason  for^believing  that,  while  still  at  the  University  and 
before  he  had  reached  his  twentieth  year,  the  purpose  of 
translating  the  Scriptures  was  already  working  in  his  mind. 
An  autograph  collection  in  the  hands  of  one  of  his  biogra- 


tyndale's  new- testament.  125 

phers,*  of  translations  made  by  him  of  select  portions  of 
the  New  Testament,  shows  in  its  ornamental,  missal-like 
captions  and  borders,  the  initials  W.  T.,  and  the  date 
1502,  several  times  repeated.  To  the  latter  are  prefixed, 
it,  one  instance,  the  significant  words  "TixME  Trieth;"  as 
if  the  youthful  translator  even  then  had  it  in  view,  to  sub- 
mit his  labors  to  the  test  of  publication.  It  is  a  fact  no 
less  remarkable  than  interesting,  that  these  early  attempts 
were  transferred,  for  the  most  paxt  verbatim,  into  his  com- 
plete New  Testament;  and  that  many  passages  have  come 
down,  through  the  successive  revisions,  unaltered  into  our 
common  version  !  Thus  the  bent  of  his  mind,  from  its 
first  known  development,  marks  him  out  as  a  man  of  earnest 
purpose,  who  already  comprehends  what  is  his  work  and 
calling  in  the  age. 

Still,  however,  he  was  a  member  of  the  Romish  church, 
and  had  probably  thought  of  nothing  beyond  a  reformation 
in  the  existing  ecclesiastical  institutions.  In  1502,  the 
date  already  mentioned,  he  was  ordained  a  priest,  and  in 
1508,  became  a  friar  in  the  monastery  at  Greenwich. 
We  are  not  informed  of  the  circumstances  which  induced 
him  to  withdraw  from  this  relation ;  but  in  1522  he  had 
returned  to  his  native  Gloucestershire,  and  was  filling  the 
ofiice  of  private  tutor  and  chaplain  in  a  family  of  rank. 
While  here,  he  made  no  seci'et  of  his  reformatory  senti- 
ments, which  soon  became  well  known  in  the  surrounding 
region.  The  hospitable  mansion  of  his  patron  was  a 
favorite  resort  of  the  prelates  and  clergy  of  the  neighbor- 
hood, and  frequent  discussions  arose  at  table  in  respect  to 
the  doctrines  and  measures  of  Luther,  which  were  now 
making  much  noise  in  England.     The  dogmatism  and  de- 

*  Offer's  Memoir  prefixed  to  Tyndale's  New  Testament,  London,  1836. 


126  THE    ENGLISH    BIBLE. 

plorable  ignorance,  exhibited  by  tlie  clerical  visitors  on  these 
occasions,  often  drew  from  the  modest  tutor  a  spirited 
defence  of  the  Reformer,  and  an  earnest  recommendation 
to  test  his  views  by  the  New  Testament.  "  He  spared  not," 
says  Foxe,  "to  show  them  simply  and  plainly  his  judg- 
ment ;  and  when  they  at  any  time  did  vary  from  his 
opinions,  he  would  show  them  in  the  book,  and  lay  before 
them  the  manifest  places  of  Scri])ture,  to  confute  their 
errors  and  confirm  his  sayings."  In  these  controversies 
the  dignitaries  were  so  uniformly  mortified  by  defeat,  that 
they  gradually  ceased  their  visits ;  "  preferring,"  as  Fuller 
remarks,  "  the  loss  of  Squire  Welch's  good  cheer,  to  the 
sour  sauce  of  Master  Tyndale's  company." 

But  if  they  could  not  reason,  they  could  persecute;  and 
their  ill  will  soon  exhibited  itself  in  the  citation  of  Tyndale 
before  the  chancellor  of  the  diocese,  on  a  charge  of  heresy. 
There  was  quite  a  rally  of  the  clergy  to  witness  his  humi- 
liation. In  his  own  words, — ''  All  the  priests  of  the 
country  were  present  the  same  day."  But  under  some  in- 
fluence not  now  apparent,  the  Chancellor,  after  "  threaten- 
ing him  grievously,  and  reviling  and  rating  him  as  though 
he  had  been  a  dog,"  allowed  him  to  depart  without  pun- 
ishment. Some  of  his  friends  counselled  a  prudent  con- 
cealment of  his  views  in  future  ;  but  "  the  fire  in  his  bones  " 
refused  to  be  shut  up.  A  Popish  clergyman  soon  after 
remarked  to  Tyndale,  in  reply  to  an  earnest  plea  for  a  ver- 
naculp.r  Bible :  "  "We  had  better  be  without  God's  laws 
than  the  Pope's !  "  "I  defy  the  Pope  and  all  his  laws," 
cried  the  indignant  Reformer ;  "  and  if  God  spare 
my  life,  ere  many  years  I  ivill  cause  a  boy  that  driveth 
the  plough  to  know  m^ore  of  the  Scriptures  than  you  do  .'" 
A  pledge  which  he  nobly  redeemed  at  the  price  of  exile, 


TYNDALE  S    NEW-TESTAMENT.  127 

poverty,  a  life  of  toil  and  persecution,  and  finally  of  a 
martyr's  death. 

It  is  interesting  to  remark  how  firmly,  at  this  period, 
the  thought  had  fixed  itself  in  Tyndale's  mind,  that  the 
translation  of  the  Scriptures  out  of  the  original  tongues, 
was  emphatically  the  work  demanded  by  the  wants  of  the 
age.  He  thus  explains  the  motives  which  moved  him  to 
put  his  hand  to  the  task. 

'"  A  thousand  books  had  they  lever  to  be  put  forth 
against  their  abominable  doings  and  doctrines,  than  that 
the  Scripture  should  come  to  light.  For  as  long  as  they 
may  keep  that  down,  they  will  so  darken  the  right  way 
with  their  mist  of  sophistry,  and  so  tangle  them  that 
either  rebuke  or  despise  their  abominations,  with  arguments 
of  philosophy,  and  with  worldly  similitudes,  and  apparent 
reasons  of  natural  wisdom ;  and  with  wresting  the  Scrip- 
tures unto  their  own  purpose,  clean  contrary  unto  the  pro- 
cess, order  and  meaning  of  the  text;  and  so  delude  them 
in  descanting  upon  it  with  allegories ;  and  amaze  them, 
expounding  it  in  many  senses  before  the  unlearned  lay 
people,  (when  it  hath  but  one  plain  literal  sense,  whose 
liglit  the  owls  cannot  abide,)  that  though  thou  feel  in  thine 
heart,  and  art  sure,  how  that  all  is  false  that  they  say,  yet 
couldst  thou  not  solve  their  subtle  riddles. 

"  Which  thing  only  moved  me  to  translate  the  New  Tes- 
tament. Because  I  perceived  by  experience,  how  that  it 
was  impossible  to  establish  the  lay  people  in  any  truth, 
except  the  Scrijitures  wei'e  plainly  laid  before  their  eyes  in 
their  mother  tongue.^' 

Convinced  that  the  prosecution  of  his  design  was  im- 
practicable where  he  then  was,  and  fearing,  moreover,  to 
jeopardize  the  family  of  his  kind  patrons,  by  remaining 


128  THE    ENGLISH    BIBLE. 

uuder  their  roof,  Tyndale  now  resolved  to  seek  auother 
home.  The  plan  he  formed  in  this  exigency,  strikingly 
illustrates  his  simplicity  of  character,  and  his  ignorance 
of  the  state  of  things  in  "  high  places."  The  opposition 
from  which  he  had  suffered,  he  ascribed  to  the  peculiar 
ignorance  and  stupidity  of  the  Gloucestershire  clergy. 

"  When,"  says  he,  "  I  was  so  turmoiled  in  the  country 

where  I  was,  that  I  could  no  longer  dwell  there, I 

thiswise  thought  in  myself:  this  I  suffer,  because  the 
priests  of  the  country  be  unlearned,  as  God  knoweth  they 
are  a  full  ignorant  sort,  which  have  seen  no  more  Latin 
than  they  read  in  their  Portesses,  and  Missals,  which  yet 
many  of  them  can  scarcely  read.  And  therefore,  because 
they  are  thus  unlearned,  thought  I,  when  they  come  toge- 
ther to  the  ale-house,  which  is  their  preaching  place,  they 
affirm  that  my  sayings  are  heresy." 

From  the  enlightened  clergy  of  the  metropolis,  he  ex- 
pected very  different  treatment.  He  fixed  his  eyes  on 
Tunstal,  Bishop  of  London,  whom  Erasmus,  in  his  Anno- 
tations on  the  New  Testament,  had  proclaimed  a  paragon 
of  learning  and  liberality,  as  the  man  under  whose  counte- 
nance he  was  to  execute,  in  safety  and  quiet,  and  with  all 
such  aids  as  he  might  need,  the  beneficent  task  of  giving 
the  Bible  to  England.  "  I  thought,"  says  he,  "  if  I  might 
come  into  this  man's  service,  I  were  happy.  For  even  in 
the  Bishop  of  London's  house,  I  intended  to  have  done  it." 

Bidding  farewell  to  his  pleasant  home  in  Little  Sodbury 
Manor,  Tyndale  now  turned  his  steps  towards  London,  pro- 
vided with  a  letter  from  his  patron  to  Sir  Harry  Guild- 
ford, the  King's  Comptroller.  The  story  of  his  disap- 
pointment must  be  given  in  his  own  words  : 

"And  so,"  be  says,  "  I  gat  me  to  London,  and  through 


tyndale's  new-testament.  119> 

the  acquaintance  of  my  master,  came  to  Sir  Harrj  Guild- 
ford, the  King's  Grace's  Comptroller,  and  brought  him  au 
oration  of  Isocrates,  which  I  had  translated  out  of  Greek 
into  English,  to  speak  unto  my  Lord  of  London  for  me. 
This  he  also  did,  as  he  showed  me,  and  willed  me  to  write 
an  epistle  to^  my  lord,  and  to  go  to  him  myself,  which  I 
also  did,  and  delivered  my  epistle  to  a  servant  of  his  own, 
one  William  Ilebilthwayte,  a  man  of  mine  old  acquain- 
tance. But  God,  which  knoweth  that  which  is  within 
hypocrites,  saw  that  I  was  beguiled,  and  that  that  counsel 
was  not  the  next  way  to  my  purpose.  And  therefore 
he  gat  me  no  favor  iu  my  lord's  sight.  Whereupon  my  lord 
answered  me — '  his  house  was  full,  he  had  more  than  he 
could  well  find,  and  advised  me  to  seek  in  London,  where,' 
he  said,  '  I  could  not  lack  a  service.'  " 

The  historical  novelist  might  go  far,  without  finding 
richer  materials  for  character-painting,  than  are  furnished 
by  this  little  narrative.  The  guileless  country  scholar, 
his  head  teeming  with  classical  and  sacred  lore,  and  his 
heart  burning  with  a  great  thought  of  beneficence  to  his 
country — with  his  letter  from  the  country  baronet,  and  his 
oration  of  Isocrates  for  credentials — and  the  proud,  world- 
ly church  dignitary,  whose  friendship  and  protection  ho 
came  to  solicit,  would  make  an  exquisite  contrast.  To  the 
Bishop  of  London,  the  poor,  unknown  clerk  is  a  very 
difi"erent  personage  from  the  celebrated  Erasmus,  the  pro- 
tege of  popes  and  princes ;  and  Tyndale  is  shown  out  of 
the  stately  episcopal  palace,  with  the  kind  advice  to  seek 
his  fortune  elsewhere.  "  Truly,"  thus  muses  the  disap- 
pointed scholar,  "  it  was  all  in  the  tongue  of  Erasmus, 
which  maketh  of  little  gnats  great  elephants,  and  lifteth  up 
above  the  stars  whoever  giveth  him  a  little  exhibition  !" — 


130  THE    ENGLISH    BIBLE, 

There  came  a  time,  and  not  long  after,  wlien  Bistop 
Tunstal  found  this  same  William  Tyndale  a  man  of  far 
more  account,  so  far  as  the  interests  of  the  Romish  hier- 
archy were  concerned,  than  the  great  Erasmus. 

Nearly  a  year  was  consumed  in  vain  eiforts  to  secure  a 
situation  favorable  to  the  accotnplishment  of  his  design. 
Evidently,  there  was  something  in  his  deportment  and 
conversation,  which  did  not  commend  him  to  the  church 
dignitaries  of  the  capital.  The  last  six  months,  he  found 
a  home  in  the  hospitable  abode  of  Humphrey  Monmouth, 
a  wealthy  citizen,  afterwards  an  Alderman  of  London. 
It  was,  however,  far  from  being  an  idle  or  unprofitable 
year.  He  preached,  it  would  seem,  regularly  at  St.  Dun- 
stan's  church.  Fleet-street,  on  the  Sabbath,  and  was  as 
indefatigable  a  student  as  ever.  But  the  most  valuable 
lessons  of  the  year  were  obtained  from  the  study,  for 
which  the  metropolis  furnished  such  rich  advantages,  of 
the  working  of  the  existing  church  system,  its  influence  on 
the  character  of  the  clergy,  and  through  them,  upon  the 
moral  condition  of  the  kingdom,  and  the  general  interests 
of  Christendom.  He  now  saw  that  a  plan  for  enlightening 
the  people,  like  that  which  he  had  formed,  was  in  contra- 
vention of  the  first  principle  of  their  policy,  that  the  power 
of  the  clergy  rests  on  the  ignorance  of  the  masses.  Be- 
fore the  close  of  the  year,  he  had  relinquished  all  idea  of 
attempting  its  execution  in  "England. 

"  And  so,"  he  says,  "  I  abode  in  London  almost  a  year, 
and  marked  the  course  of  the  world,  and  heard  our  preach- 
ers, how  they  boasted  themselves  and  their  high  authority ; 
and  beheld  the  pomp  of  our  Prelates,  and  how  busy  they 
were,  as  they  yet  use,  to  set  peace  and  unity  in  the  world  ; 
though  it  be  not  possible  for  them  that  walk  in  darkness,  to 


tyndale's  new-testament.  131 

continue  long  in  peace,  (for  they  cannot  but  either  stumble, 
or  dash  themselves  at  one  thing  or  another,  that  shall  clean 
disquiet  them  altogether,)  and  saw  things  of  which  I  defer 
to  speak  at  this  time ;  and  understood  at  the  last,  not 
only  that  there  was  no  room  in  my  Lord  of  London's  palace 
to  translate  the  New  Testament,  but  also  that  there  was 
no  place  to-  do  it  in  all  England,  as  experience  doth  now 
openly  declare." 

Accordingly,  late  in  the  year  1523,*  being  furnished  by 
his  noble  friend,  Monmouth,  with  the  sum  of  ten  pounds 
(equal  to  one  hundred  and  fifty  of  the  present  time,  or 
nearly  seven  hundred  dollars),  Tyndale  bade  a  final,  adieu 
to  his  native  laud,  and  embarked  for  Hamburgh.  In  this 
city  he  remained  between  one  and  two  years,  diligently 
improving  the  quiet  and  security  here  afi'orded  for  the 
prosecution  of  his  translation. 

Having  nearly  or  quite  completed  it,  he  drew  on  Mon- 
mouth for  an  additional  ten  pounds,  contributed  by  other 
English  friends,  which  he  had  left  with  him  for  safe-keep- 
ing, and  repaired  to  Cologne  for  the  purpose  of  printing 
bis  manuscript  at  one  of  its  celebrated  presses.  His 
arrangements  were  made  with  the  greatest  secrecy,  for 
Cologne  was  far  from  being  favorable  to  the  sentiments  of 
the  Reformation. 

One  interesting  fact  should  not  be  omitted  in  this  con- 
nection. The  English  merchants,  residing  for  purposes  of 
trade  in  the  commercial  cities  of  Germany,  seem,  as  a 
general  thing,  to  have  been  deeply  imbued  with  Protestant 
principles.     Many  of  them  became  the  steady  friends  and 

*  In  the  statement  of  dates  and  places,  the  authority  of  Anderson  (Annals 
of  the  English  Bible,  London,  1845)  is,  for  the  most  part,  followed  in  this 
division  of  the  work. 


132  THE    ENGLISH    BIBLE. 

protectors  of  Tjndale,  and  entered  with  warm  zeal  into 
his  design  of  giving  the  Bible  to  their  common  country. 
They  aided  him  with  money ;  their  ships  were  at  his  ser- 
vice for  the  conveyance  of  his  precious  offering  into  Eng- 
land, concealed  in  boxes  and  bales  of  merchandise.  Of 
like  spirit  must  have  been  their  partners  in  the  English 
ports,  to  whom  it  was  consigned.  Thus  we  have  a  glimpse 
into  a  state  of  opinion  and  feeling,  in  a  most  influential 
class  of  English  society,  which  might  well  excite  the 
utmost  jealousy  and  vigilance  on  the  part  of  the  church- 
men. Such  friends  Tyndale  found  at  Cologne ;  and  his 
work  was  passing  through  the  press  under  happy  auspices, 
when  an  exigency  arose,  beyond  their  power  to  meet,  which 
drove  Tyndale  hastily  from  the  city. 

THE      BIBLE      HATER. 

Just  at  this  critical  moment,  when  the  salvation  of  Eng- 
land seemed  to  hang  on  the  successful  completion  of  the 
undertaking,  there  arrived  in  Cologne  one  of  the  most 
busy  and  malignant  enemies  of  the  truth,  that  the  world 
has  seen.  The  especial  distinction  of  John  Cochlseus  was 
his  intense  hatred  to  vernacular  translations  of  the  Bible, 
in  which  he  is  said  to  have  surpassed  all  his  contempo- 
raries. The  rancor  which  characterized  his  numerous 
writings  against  the  German  Reformers,  and  his  unceasing 
efforts,  by  word  and  deed,  to  counteract  their  influence, 
had  so  offended  the  Protestant  feeling  of  Frankfort,  where 
he  formerly  resided,  that  he  was  obliged  to  flee  from  that 
city.  The  same  thing  having  been  repeated  at  Mentz,  he 
took  refuge  at  Cologne  at  the  very  tim'e  when  his  presence 
was,  seemingly,  most  disastrous  to  the  cause  of  truth.  Just 
then  he  was  exceedingly  anxious  to  bring  out  the  works  of 


tvndale's  new  testament.  133 

Rupert,  an  ancient  abbot  of  Deutz,  wlio  was  claimed  by 
both  parties  in  the  great  controversy ;  but  he  found  it 
difficult  to  convince  any  of  the  Cologne  printers  that  the 
enterprise  would  pay.  After  many  unsuccessful  attempts, 
Peter  Quintel,  the  very  printer  employed  by  Tyndale,  was 
persuaded  to  make  the  trial ;  and  thus  the  best  of  oppor- 
tunities for  "^  ferreting  out  the  important  secret  was  fur- 
nished to  the  man,  who,  of  all  others,  wouM  be  likely  to 
make  the  worst  use  of  it. 

For  a  person  of  his  rank,  and  an  ecclesiastic,  Cochlasus 
seems  to  have  been  on  terms  of  very  jovial  fellowship  with 
the  printers.  The  manner  in  which  he  improved  the  inti- 
macy is  most  fitly  related  in  his  own  words. 

"  Having  thus  become  more  intimate  and  familiar  with 
the  Cologne  printers,  he  sometimes  heard  them  boast,  con- 
fidently, when  in  their  cups,  that,  whether  the  King  and 
Cardinal  of  England  would  or  not,  all  England  would,  in 
a  short  time,  be  Lutheran.  He  heard,  also,  that  there 
were  two  Englishmen  lurking  there,  learned,  skillful  in 
languages,  and  fluent,  whom,  however,  he  could  never  see 
or  converse  with.  Calling,  therefore,  certain  printers  into 
his  lodging,  after  they  loere  heated  with  wine,  one  of  them 
in  more  private  discourse,  discovered  to  him  the  secret  by 
which  England  was  to  be  drawn  over  to  the  side  of  Luther, 
— namely,  '  That  three  thousand  copies  of  the  Lutheran 
New  Testament,  translated  into  the  English  language, 
were  in  press,  and  already  were  advanced  as  far  as  the 
letter  K,  in  orclinc  quaternionum.  That  the  expenses 
were  fully  supplied  by  English  merchants,  who  were 
secretly  to  convey  the  work  when  printed,  and  disperse  it 
widely  through  all  England,  before  the  King  or  the  Car- 
dinal would  discover  or  prevent  it.'  " 


134  THE    ENGLISH    BIBLE. 

Having  considered  with  himself  "  the  magnitude  of  the 
grievous  danger,"  Coehlasus  repaired,  next  day,  to  the 
house  of  Hermann  Riucke,  a  distinguished  patrician  of 
Cologne,  who  had  held  many  high  ofl&ces  at  court,  was 
familiar  hoth  with  the  Emperor  and  with  the  King  of  Eng- 
land, and  had  great  influence  in  the  city  government,^ and 
to  him  disclosed  the  whole  affair.  Herr  Rincke  was  not  the 
man  to  let  slip  an  opportunity  for  laying  a  king  under  obli- 
gation. Accordingly,  after  satisfying  himself  by  personal 
investigation  at  the  printing  house,  that  Cochlasus  was  not 
mistaken,  he  laid  the  matter  before  the  city  Senate,  and  made 
such  a  representation  of  the  case,  that  they  issued  an  order 
interdicting  the  printer  from  proceeding  farther  in  that  work. 
Tyndale  did  not  wait  for  the  second  blow.  Hastily  gather- 
ing up  his  manuscripts,  and  the  sheets  as  far  as  printed,  he 
fled  with  his  assistant,  George  Roye,  up  the  Rhine  to  Worms. 
This  place,  being  fully  pervaded  by  the  doctrines  of  Luther, 
offered  a  far  more  secure  retreat  than  Cologne,  and  here, 
accordingly,  he  remained  till  the  year  1527 

Arrived  at  "Worms,  he  was  personally  safe,  and  might 
hope  to  complete  his  work  without  interruption.  But  a 
new  difficulty  lay  in  his  way.  The  New  Testament  which 
he  had  commenced  printing  was  in  quarto  form,  with  ex- 
planatory notes  and  glosses,  and  a  long  Prologue  at  the 
beginning.  All  this  had  become  known  to  his  enemies, 
who  would,  of  course,  furnish  such  a  description  of  the  volume 
to  the  authorities  in  England,  as  would  enable  them  to  seize 
all  copies  the  instant  they  arrived.  Tyndale  decided 
at  once  upon  his  course.  Laying  aside  his  quarto  for  the 
present,  he  had  an  edition  of  the  text  merely  struck  off  in 
octavo  form,  in  which,  for  the  Prologue,  he  substituted  an 
Epistle  to  the  Reader,  at  the  end,— thus  effacing,  so  far  as 


tyndale's  new-testament.  135 

possible,  every  feature  by  which  the  book  might  be  iden- 
tified. This  he  probably  iuteuJed  should  precede  the 
quarto,  by  an  interval  sufficiently  long  to  allow  the  alarm 
excited  by  Cochlaeus  to  die  away.  But,  through  some 
circumstances,  now  unknown,  its  transmission  to  England 
was  delayed  till  the  quarto  also  had  been  completed,  and  both 
editions  arrived  very  nearly  at  the  same  time,  towards  the 
close  of  December,  1525.  The  labor  was  not,  indeed,  fruit- 
less ;  for  the  little  octavo  had  been  quietly  making  its  way 
through  the  country,  nearly  three  quarters  of  a  year  before 
its  existence  was  suspected.  The  quarto,  on  the  contrary, 
was  discovered  scarcely  a  month  after  its  arrival.  The 
circumstances  of  its  detection  furnish  a  lively  picture  of 
the  state  of  the  times. 

THE     SECRET     SEARCH. 

In  the  year  1523,  Sj'mon  Fyshe,  a  lawyer  of  Gray's  Inn, 
London,  having  taken  part  in  a  privately  acted  play  which 
reflected  severely  on  Cardinal  Wolsey,  was  that  same  night 
betrayed,  and  obliged  to  flee  from  his  own  house,  and  at 
length  from  England.  While  still  in  exile,  probably  in  the 
year  1524,  he  composed  a  tract  addressed  '  to  the  King 
our  Sovereign  Lord,'  entitled  '  The  Supplication  of  Beg- 
gars,' which  set  forth  in  a  bold  ;ind  spirited  manner, 
the  danger  to  the  nation  and  the  throne,  from  the  grasp- 
ing avarice  of  the  clergy.  In  this,  he  averred,  was  the 
true  ground  of  their  opposition  to  the  Bible  for  the 
people.  "  This  is  the  great  scab  lohy  they  loill  not  let  the 
New  Testament  go  abroad  in  your  mother -tongue^  lest 
men  should  espy  t.hat  they,  by  their  cloaked  hypocrisy,  do 
translate,  thus  fast,  your  kingdom  into  their  hands." — 
Copies  of  this  stirring  appeal  were  soon  secretly  circulat- 


136  THE    ENGLISH   BIBLE, 

ing  in  England,  and  produced  wherever  read  a  deep  im- 
pression. On  Candlemas  day,  February  2,  1526,  advan- 
tage was  taken  of  a  royal  procession  to  Westminster,  to 
scatter  large  numbers  in  the  streets,  thus  distributing  it 
far  and  wide,  among  all  classes  of  people. 

How  slight  a  cause  will  alarm  the  abettor  of  error  !  The 
great  Cardinal,  clothed  with  almost  regal  and  pontifical 
power,  the  man  who  had  been  truly  called  the  'king  of 
his  king,'  trembled  at  these  few  pages  of  a  friendless, 
banished  man.  It  was  not  without  reason ;  for  they  had 
in  them  the  omnipotence  of  truth  !  So  imminent  seemed 
to  him  the  danger,  that  on  the  very  next  day,  orders  were 
issued  by  his  authority  for  a  "  secret  search''''  after  Lu- 
theran books,*  to  be  made  simultaneously  in  London,  and 
both  the  Universities.  Three  years  before,  a  similar  mea- 
sure had  been  resolved  on,  as  a  check  to  the  progress  of 
reform,  and  had  then  obtained  the  king's  full  concurrence. 
Without  waiting  for  any  farther  expression  of  the  royal 
will,  W^olsey  now  proceeded  to  carry  this  act  into  instant 
execution.  Such  were  the  circumstances  which  led  to  the 
discovery,  thus  early,  of  the  English  New  Testament. 

Suspicion  having  fastened  particularly  on  one  Thomas 
Garrett,  Curate  of  All-Hallows  Church,  as  a  receiver  and 
distributor  of  prohibited  books,  he  was  searched  for  through 
all  London.  It  was  found,  however,  that  he  had  gone  to  Ox- 
ford, with  a  great  quantity  of  such  books,  for  the  purpose 
of  there  making  sale  of  them  "  to  such  as  he  knew  to  be 
lovers  of  the  Gospel."     Thither  he  was  pursued,  in  the  de- 

*  Lutheran  was  now  the  term  of  reproach,  as  Z,o//ard  had  been  during 
the  preceding  century.  Under  this  name  were  included  not  only  the 
translated  works  of  the  German  Reformers,  but  all  English  books,  both 
old  and  recent,  which  contained  sentiments  similar  to  theirs,  Tyndale'a 
original  writings  and  his  New  Testament  among  the  number. 


tyndale's  new  testament.  137 

termination,  says  Foxe,  "to  appreliend  and  imprison  him, 
and  to  burn  all  and  every  his  foresaid  books,  and  him- 
self too,  if  they  could,  so  burning  hot  was  their  zeal."  But 
having  received  a  friendly  warning  of  his  danger,  he  fled 
on  the  morning  of  the  7th,  and  concealed  himself.  The 
impression  of  that  day  of  terror  is  affectingly  given  in  the 
words  of  Anthony  Dalaber,  one  of  the  pious  Oxford  stu- 
dents, who  was  a  devoted  friend,  and,  soon  after,  a  fellow- 
sufferer  of  Garrett. 

"When  he  was  gone  down  from  my  chamber,  I  straight- 
ways  did  shut  my  chamber  door,  and  went  into  my  study, 
and  took  the  New  Testament  in  my  hands,  kneeled 
down  on  my  knees,  and  with  many  a  deep  sigh  and  salt 
tear,  I  did  with  much  deliberation  read  over  the  tenth 
chapter  of  Matthew's  Gospel ;  and  when  I  had  so  done, 
with  fervent  prayers  I  did  commit  unto  God  our  dearly 
beloved  brother  Garrett,  earnestly  beseeching  him  in  and 
for  Jesus  Christ's  sake,  his  only  begotten  Son,  our  Lord, 
that  he  would  vouchsafe  not  only  safely  to  conduct  and 
keep  our  said  dear  brother  from  the  hands  of  all  his  ene- 
mies, but  also  that  he  would  endue  his  tender  and  lately 
born  little  flock  in  Oxford  with  heavenly  strength  by  his 
Holy  Spirit,  that  they  might  be  able  thereby  valiantly  to 
withstand,  to  his  glory,  all  their  fierce  enemies,  and  might 
also  quietly,  to  their  own  salvation,  with  all  godly  patience, 
bear  Christ's  heavy  cross ;  which  I  now  saw  was  presently 
to  be  laid  on  their  young  and  tender  backs,  unable  to  bear 
so  great  a  burden  without  the  great  help  of  his  Holy 
Spirit.     This  done,  I  laid  aside  my  book  safe." 

Many  such  scenes,  no  doubt,  passed  that  night  in  soli- 
tary rooms  at  Oxford,  when  the  English  New  Testament 
of  Tyndale  was  consecrated  to  its  holy,  work  by  the  tears 


138  THE    ENGLISH    BIBLE. 

and  prayers  of  liumble  and  trembling  hearts.  On  the  fol- 
lowing Friday,  poor  Garrett  fell  into  the  hands  of  his  ene- 
ujies.  After  being  compelled,  in  company  with  Dulaber 
and  several  other  convicted  students,  to  march  in  procession 
from  St.  Mary's  to  Cardinal  College,  where  each  of  them 
cast  one  of  the  condemned  books  into  a  large  bonfire 
kindled  for  the  purpose,  the  two  friends  were  imprisoned 
at  Osney  Isle  till  near  the  close  of  the  year,  when  Garrett 
was  brought  before  Tunstal  for  the  trial,  which  resulted 
in  his  martyrdom. 

But  these  were  not  the  onl}^  victims  at  Oxford.  Cardi- 
nal College,  that  darling  of  Wolsey's  heart,  was  found  to 
be  deeply  infected  with  the  dreaded  poison.  The  books 
detected  under  the  flooring  of  its  rooms  and  in  other  secret 
places,  too  plainly  betrayed  the  humiliating  fact.  The 
Cardinal's  anger  was  in  proportion  to  his  disappointment. 
Of  the  suspected,  some  escaped  to  their  friends  ;  but  ten 
or  more  members  of  this  model  college,  with  about  an 
equal  number  from  the  others,  were  apprehended,  and  im- 
mured in  a  deep  cellar  under  Cardinal  College,  used  as  a 
repository  of  salt  fish.  Three  of  them  sunk  within  a  week 
under  the  efi'ects  of  a  putrid  atmosphere  and  unwholesome 
food,  and  a  fourth  soon  followed.  The  rest,  after  lying 
from  i\Iarch  to  August  in  this  loathsome  dungeon,  with 
nothing  to  subsist  on  but  the  fish  with  which  it  was  stored, 
were  made  prisoners  at  large  by  Wolsey.  He  probably 
thought  that  by  this  time  the  lads  were  well  cured  of 
heresy. 

Among  the  number  thus  released  was  John  Frith,  then 
about  twenty-two  years  of  age,  a  yoiiug  man  of  rare  genius 
and  acquirements,  and  of  fervent  piety.  He  soon  escaped 
to  the  continent ;  and  having  joined  his  spiritual  father  and 


tyndale's'  new  testament.  139 

best  beloved  friend,  Tyndale,  became  his  assistant  in  trans- 
lating the  Bible. 

We  must  now  turn  to  the  sister  university.  Cambridge 
lay  under  still  stronger  suspicion  of  heresy  than  Oxford, 
and  with  good  reason.  Here,  several  years  before,  Thomas 
Bilney  had  been  converted  by  the  study  of  Erasmus'  Grreek 
Testament;  and,  through  his  labors,  Hugh  Latimer,  and 
Robert  Barnes,  Prior  of  the  Monastery  of  Augustine  Friars 
at  Cambridge,  had  also  learned  the  way  of  life.  From 
them,  a  powerful  evangelical  influence  had  spread  into  the 
various  colleges  of  the  university,  so  that  even  as  early  as 
1523  certain  bishops  had  urged  the  importance  of  a  visita- 
tion, for  the  purpose  of  trying  those  who  were  infected  with 
heresy.  Wolsey,  who  always  resented  the  interference  of 
inferior  prelates  in  matters  which  he  had  taken  under  his 
special  supervision,  and  who  probably  thought  he  could 
arrest  the  epidemic  whenever  he  might  please  to  speak  the 
word,  silenced  the  movement.  Perhaps,  moreover,  he  could 
not  prevail  on  himself  to  extinguish,  at  once,  the  only 
light  amid  the  stupid  conservatism  of  Cambridge;  for  the 
suspected  parties  were  the  sole  promoters  and  examples 
of  liberal  learning  in  the  university.  Whatever  Avere  the 
cause,  the  truth  was  permitted  to  spread  three  years  longer, 
unobstructed  by  any  authoritative  interference. 

But  a  crisis  gradually  approached.  Growing  bolder  and 
more  earnest  in  the  truth,  Latimer  openly  inveighed  against 
the  crime  of  locking  up  the  Scriptures  from  the  people  in 
a7i  unknown  tongue.  Upon  this  he  was  cited  for  heresy 
before  West,  Bishop  of  Ely,  and  forbidden  to  preach  either 
in  the  churclies  of  the  university,  or  anywhere  within 
his  diocese.  But  the  monasteries  were  exempt  from  epis- 
copal jurisdiction,  and  Barnes  opened  his  chapel  to  the 


140  THE    ENGLISH    3IBLE, 

silenced  preacTier.  Such  were  the  crowds  who  rushed  to 
hear  him  that  the  place  could  not  contain  them.  Barnes 
himself  was  now  invited  by  the  parish  of  St.  Edwards  to 
preach  in  their  church  ;  and,  though  constitutionally  timid, 
and  hitherto,  it  would  seem,  cautious  in  his  policy,  he  now 
resolved  to  give  free  and  full  utterance  to  his  convictions. 
The  rising  tide  of  popular  favor,  an  influence  to  which  he 
was  very  susceptible,  may  have  caused  something  of  humau 
vanity  and  presumption  to  mingle  with  his  better  feelings ; 
for,  not  contenting  himself  with  a  clear  exhibition  of  Chris- 
tian truth,  he  launched  into  a  bold  tirade,  full  of  wit  and 
sarcasm,  against  the  worldly  pomp  and  magnificence  of  the 
Lord  Cardinal  himself,  then  in  the  height  and  plenitude 
of  power.  A  rebuke  well  merited,  indeed,  but  which  could 
hardly  fail  to  lead  to  consequences  for  which,  alas !  poor 
Barnes  was  but  ill-prepared.  This  was  on  the  24th  of 
December,  1525.  A  storm  immediately  arose  in  the  uni- 
versity, one  party  siding  most  zealously  with  the  preacher, 
as  a  champion  of  the  faith,  the  other  firmly  resolved  on  his 
humiliation  or  his  ruin.  Public  disputations  on  the  con- 
tested points  were  kept  up  through  the  whole  of  January, 
and  the  first  week  of  February,  in  which  learned  men  from 
at  least  seven  different  colleges  took  part.  Meanwhile  a 
full  account  of  the  transaction  had  been  sent  to  the 
Cardinal, 

Things  were  thus  progressing  at  Cambridge,  and  Wol- 
sey's  proud  spirit  hadjaeen  stung  to  madness,  by  the  report 
of  Barnes'  attack  upon  those  peculiarly  tender  points  in 
his  character,  when  the  distribution  of  Fyshe's  tract,  on 
the  second  of  February,  completed  his  chagrm  and  irrita- 
tion. The  emissaries  of  the  "-secret  search^'''  at  Cambridge, 
Lad  a  double  commission ;  first,  the  apprehension  of  Dr 


tyndale's  new  testament.  141 

Barnes,  and  secondly,  tlie  seizure  of  heretical  books,  and 
of  those  in  whose  possession  they  were  found.  Of  these, 
not  fewer  than  thirty  names  were  on  their  list,  and  the 
rooms  of  each  had  been  exactly  designated  and  described. 
But  at  the  first  instant  of  the  officers'  arrival,  Dr.  For- 
man,  of  Queen's  College,  himself  an  adherent  of  "  the  new 
learning,"  hard  given  the  warning  word ;  and  by  the  time 
the  Sergeant-atarms,  attended  by  the  Vice-Chancellor  and 
the  Proctors,  was  ready  to  go  the  rounds,  Cambridge  was,  to 
all  appearance,  purified  of  heresy.  Not  a  "  seditious  "  book 
was  to  be  found ;  and  the  officer,  with  only  Dr.  Barnes  ia 
charge,  returned  to  London,  no  wiser  than  he  came. 

The  next  day  after  his  apprehension,  Barnes  stood  be- 
fore Wolsey,  whose  bitter  taunts  and  hard  demeanor  be- 
trayed how  deeply  his  pride  had  been  wounded.  "  What ! 
Master  Doctor,"  he  asked,  "  had  you  not  scope  enough  in 
the  Scriptures  to  teach  the  people,  that  my  golden  shoes, 
my  pole-axes,  my  pillars,  my  golden  cushions,  my  crosses 
did  so  offend  you,  that  you  must  make  me  ridiculum  caput 
before  the  people  ?  We  were  jollily  that  day  laughed  to 
scorn.  Verily,  it  was  a  sermon  fitter  to  be  preached  on  a 
stage  than  in  a  pulpit."  Poor  Barnes  for  a  time  held  out 
bravely,  alike  against  threats  and  persuasions.  But  when 
the  final  alternative  was  put  to  him — '■^Abjure  or  burn'''' — 
his  faith  proved  insufficient  for  the  trial.  Having,  iu 
great  agony  of  mind,  at  length  yielded  to  the  demands  of 
his  judges,  the  next  Sunday  was  appointed  for  the  public 
expiation  of  his  offence,  at  St.  Paul's.  On  that  day,  the 
triumphant  Cardinal,  attired  in  purple,  surrounded  by  six 
and  thirty  abbots,  mitred  priors  and  bishops,  in  damask 
and  satin,  sat  enthroned  in  all  his  pomp — the  highest 
representative   of  the   Church  of  Rome  in  England — and 


142  THE    ENGLISH    BIBLE. 

beheld  at  his  feet  the  leading  champion  of  evangelical 
truth — au  abjuring  heretic  !  Beside  him  stood — each  lilie 
him  with  a  faggot,  the  mark  of  shame,  on  his  shoulder — 
five  honorable  merchants,  convicted  of  the  crime  of  aiding 
to  bring  the  Bible  into  England.  Within  the  rails  were 
displayed  the  evidences  of  their  guilt — '■'■great  baskets  full 
of  hooJcs,''''  in  part  the  New  Testaments  of  Tyndale — the 
precious  booty  gathered  by  the  previous  week's  "  search" 
in  Oxford  and  Loudon.  After  a  sermon  against  Luther 
and  Barnes,  by  Fisher,  Bishop  of  Rochester,  these  baskets 
were  emptied  into  a  large  bonfire,  kindled  before  the  great 
crucifix  at  the  north  gate  of  St.  Paul's,  wherein,  also,  the 
hei-etics,  after  making  three  times  the  circuit  of  the  fire, 
cast  their  faggots.  Wolsey  then  retired  under  a  canopy, 
in  great  pomp,  and  Fisher  proclaimed  to  the  assembly 
certain  days  of  pardon  and  indulgence,  for  being  present 
on  this  occasion ;  though  by  his  own  statement,  when  he 
afterwards  published  his  sermon,  they  had  made  such  a 
tumult,  as  to  drown  his  voice  during  its  delivery.  At  the 
close  of  the  ceremony,  the  unhappy  Barnes,  in  accordance 
with  the  good  faith  and  tenderness  usually  shown  by  the 
Romish  Mother  to  those  who  have  returned  to  her  bosom, 
was  sent  back  to  prison. 

Such  was  the  greeting  which  the  New  Testament  received 
at  the  hands  of  the  priesthood,  on  its  first  arrival  in  England, 
in  the  sixteenth  century.  It  was  just  as  they  had  treated 
Wicklifi"e's  Bible  a  hundred  and  forty  years  before.  The 
spirit  of  the  Romish  Church  had  remained  unchanged. 

THE      KING     ENLISTED. 

Thus  far,  however,  these  measures  had  received  no  di- 
rect countenance  from  the  King.     In  the  "secret  search" 


tyndale's  new  testament.  143 

just  described,  the  Cardinal  had  acted  simply  on  his  own 
ecclesiastical  authority.  But  a  few  weeks  only  had  elapsed, 
when  Luther's  imprudence,  and  Henry's  vanity,  furnished 
the  means  of  enlisting  him  as  a  persecutor,  with  a  zeal  no 
less  violent  than  theirs. 

Henry  VIIL's  book  against  Luther,  by  which  he  gained 
from  the  Pope  the  title  in  which  he  so  much  gloried — 
"  Defender  of  the  Faith" — and  Luther's  uncourteous,  not 
to  say  virulent  reply,  are  matters  familiar  to  my  readers. 
In  1525,  Luther — urged,  as  he  afterwards  professed,  by 
Christian,  King  of  Denmark — made  a  most  blundering  at- 
tempt at  reconciliation  with  Henry,  by  a  letter,  in  which 
he  begged  pardon  for  his  former  one,  as  foolish,  precipitate, 
and  oflfensive ;  but,  at  the  same  time,  explaining  that  he 
now  understood  the  real  author  of  the  King's  book  to 
have  been  Wolsey,  whom  he  denounced  as  "  a  monster,  the 
abhorrence  of  God  and  man,  and  the  plague  of  the  realm 
of  England."  It  so  happened,  moreover,  that  the  original 
letter  never  reached  Henry,  but  only  a  printed  copy,  and 
that  not  till  six  months  after  its  date,  or  about  one  month 
after  the  degradation  of  Barnes,  and  the  burning  of  the 
New  Testaments  at  St.  Paul's. 

The  wily  Cardinal  well  knew  how  to  turn  Lniher's  faux 
pas  to  his  own  ends.  Incensed  beyond  measure  at  the 
Reformer's  depreciation  of  his  precious  book,  and  of  his 
own  claim  to  be  its  author,  and  justly  angry  that  the  letter 
should  have  been  given  to  the  public  months  before  he  saw 
it ;  Henry  was  easily  persuaded,  that  the  New  Testaments, 
secretly  conveyed  in  such  numbers  into  the  country,  were 
from  the  same  source,  being  part  and  parcel  of  Luther's 
plot  to  turn  all  England  to  his  heresy.  The  fact  that  the 
translator's  name  was  withheld,  gave  color  to  the  asser- 


144  THE    ENGLISH   BIBLE. 

tion.  The  King  was  now  quite  willing  to  aid  in  tteir 
suppression ;  and,  accordingly,  the  first  royal  mani- 
festo in  defence  of  the  burning  the  English  Bible,  and  the 
severe  punishment  of  those  who  should  read  it,  soon  ap- 
peared. To  his  Latin  reply  to  Luther,  was  prefixed  an 
English  address  to  his  own  subjects,  in  which,  after  an  ac- 
count of  Luther's  unfortunate  letter,  and  his  "device"  of 
translating  the  New  Testament  into  English,  "  with  cor- 
ruptions in  the  holy  text,  as  well  as  with  certain  prefaces 
and  glosses,  for  the  advancement  and  setting  forth  of  his 
abominable  heresies,"  he  proceeds  in  the  following  paternal 
style  :  "In  the  avoiding  whereof.  We,  of  our  special  tender 
zeal  towards  you,  have,  with  the  deliberate  advice  of  the 
most  reverent  Father  in  God,  Thomas  Lord  Cardinal,  Le- 
gate a  latere  of  the  See  Apostolic,  Archbishop  of  York, 
Chancellor  and  our  Primate  of  this  realm,  and  other  reve- 
rend fathers  of  the  spirituality,  determined  the  said  and 
untrue  translations  to  be  burned,  with  further  sharp  cor- 
rection and  punishment  against  the  keepers  and  readers 
of  the  same,  reckoning  of  your  wisdom  very  sure,  that  ye 
will  well  and  thankfully  receive  our  tender  and  loving  mind 
to  you  therein,  and  that  ye  will  never  be  so  greedy  of  any 
sweet  wine,  be  the  grape  never  so  pleasant,  that  ye  will 
desire  to  taste  it,  being  well  advertised,  that  your  enemy 
before  hath  poisoned  it." 

The  King's  dutiful  subjects,  however,  were  neither  dis- 
posed to  take  his  word,  or  submit  to  his  authority  in  this 
matter.  The  idea,  so  long  nourished  in  the  humble  con- 
gregations of  the  Lollards,  that  no  power  in  Church  or 
State  can  lawfully  shut  up  the  word  of  God  from  the  people, 
had  now  spread  far  and  wide  in  England.  While,  therefore, 
unremitted  inquisition  was  made  for  the  sacred  bookj  and 


TYKDALE's    new    TESTAMENT.  145 

great  numbers  were  discovered  and  destroyed,  so  that,  we  are 
informed,  "  during  tliis  year  Bibles  were  burned  daily  ;"  yet, 
so  far  did  the  demand  and  supply  outstrip  the  activity  of 
the  clergy,  that  the  country  was  filled  with  copies.  Tun- 
stal,  Bishop  of  London,  who  had  been  absent  during  this 
excitement,  as  Ambassador  to  Spain,  returning  in  the  au- 
iiumn,  found  his  diocese  plentifully  sown,  with  both  the 
tuarto  and  the  octavo  editions.  On  the  24th  of  October, 
^he  following  decree  was  issued  under  his  episcopal  seal : 

"  By  the  duty  of  our  pastoral  office,  we  are  bound  diligently,  with  all  our 
^30wer,  to  foresee,  provide  for,  root  out,  and  put  away,  all  those  things  which 
leem  to  tend  to  the  peril  and  danger  of  our  subjects,  and  specially  the  de- 
4ruetion  of  their  souls !  AVherefore,  we  having  understanding,  by  the  report 
)f  divers  credible  persons,  and  also  by  the  evident  appearance  of  the  matter, 
that  many  children  of  iniquity,  maintainers  of  Luther's  sect,  blinded  through 
extreme  wickedness,  wandering  from  the  way  of  truth  and  the  Catholic 
faith,  craftily  have  transla'ed  the  New  Testament  into  our  English  tongue, 
intermingling  therewith  many  heretical  articles,  and  erroneous  opinions,  per- 
nicious and  offensive,  seducing  the  simple  people,  attempting,  by  their 
wicked  and  perverse  interpretations,  to  profanate  the  majesty  of  Scripture, 
which  hitherto  hath  remained  undefiled,  and  craftily  to  abuse  the  most 
Holy  Word  of  God,  and  the  true  sense  of  the  same ;  of  the  which  translation, 
there  are  mvCny  books  imprinted,  some  with  glosses,  and  some  without ;  con- 
taining in  the  English  tongue,  that  pestiferous  and  most  pernicious  poison, 
dispersed  throughout  all  our  diocese,  in  great  number — which  truly,  without  it 
be  speedily  foreseen,  without  doubt  will  contaminate  and  infect  the  flock 
committed  unto  us,  with  most  deadly  poison  and  heresy,  to  the  grievous  peril 
and  danger  of  the  souls  committed  to  our  charge,  and  the  offence  of  God's 
Divine  Majesty :  Wherefore  we,  Cuthbert,  the  Bishop  aforesaid,  grievously 
sorrowing  for  the  premises,  willing  to  withstand  the  craft  and  subtlety  of 
the  ancient  enemy  and  his  ministers,  which  seek  the  destruction  of  my  flock, 
and  with  a  diligent  care  to  take  hoed  unto  the  flock  committed  to  my 
charge,  desiring  to  find  speedy  remedies  for  the  premises.  Do  charge  you, 
jointly  and  severally,  (the  Archdeacons,)  and  by  virtue  of  your  obedience, 
straightly  enjoin  and  command  you,  that,  by  our  authority,  you  warn,  or 
cause  to  be  warned,  all  and  singular,  as  well  exempt  as  not  exempt,  dwell- 
ing withiB  your  arohdeaoonries,  that  within  thirty  days'  space,  whereof  ten 

7 


146  THE    ENGLISH    BIBLE. 

days  shall  be  for  the  first,  ten  for  the  second,  and  ten  for  the  third  peremp- 
tory term,  under  pain  of  excommunication,  and  incurring  the  suspicion  of 
heresy,  they  do  bring  in,  and  really  deliver  unto  our  Vicar-General,  (Geof- 
frey Wharton,)  all  and  singular  such  books,  as  contain  the  translation  of  the 
New  Testament  in  the  English  tongue  ;  and  that  you  do  certify  us,  or  our 
said  Commissary,  within  two  months  after  the  day  of  the  date  of  these  pres- 
ents, duly,  personally,  or  by  your  letters,  together  with  these  presents  under 
your  seals,  what  you  have  done  in  the  premises,  under  pain  of  contempt ! 
Given  under  our  seal,  the  four  and  twentienth  day  of  October,  A.  d.  1526, 
in  the  fifth  year  of  our  consecration." 

The  Archbishop  of  Canterbury  had  already  called  an 
assembly  of  Bishops,  to  consult  on  the  alarming  state  of 
his  province ;  and  a  few  days  after  the  publication  of 
Tunstal's  decree,  an  archiepiscopal ''  Mandate,"  couched  in 
nearly  the  same  terms,  directed  a  search  of  the  entire 
province,  for  the  single  object  of  seizing  copies  of  the  Eng- 
lish New  Testament. 

Aware,  however,  that  all  this  would  avail  little,  so  long 
as  the  offensive  volume  continued  to  pour  in  from  abroad, 
they  resolved  on  an  energetic  effort  to  cut  off  the  source 
of  supply.  Such  an  eager  craving  for  the  Scriptures  had 
been  created  among  the  English  people,  that  a  printer  of 
Antwerp,  Christopher  Endhoven  by  name,  had  taken  it  up, 
as  a  profitable  business  investment;  and,  without  consult- 
ing Tyudale,  had  already  brought  out  a  third  edition  of  his 
translation.  This,  with  the  former  editions,  was  now  com- 
ing into  England,  through  members  of  the  English  House 
of  Merchant  Adventurers  established  in  that  great  com- 
mercial emporium. 

The  office  of  confidential  Agent  of  the  Crown  to  the 
Imperial  City  at  this  time  (the  King's  Merchant,  as  he 
was  called)  was  Sir  John  Hackett,  who  held  also  the  high 
office  of  Envoy  to  the  Court  of  Brabant,  of  which  the  Prin- 
cess Margaret,  aunt  of  the  Emperor  Charles  V.,  was  then 


tyndale's  new  testament.  147 

Reo-ent.  Directly  after  the  issuing  of  Tunstal's  decree, 
Henry  addressed  a  letter  to  the  Princess,  and  another  to 
the  Governor  of  the  English  House,  both  of  which  had 
for  their  object  the  seizure  and  burning  of  English  New 
Testaments  found  in  that  country,  and  the  punishment, 
by  banishment  and  confiscation,  of  all  engaged  in  printing 
and  circulating  it.  Chancellor  Wolsey  also  wrote  two 
letters  to  Hackett,  to  the  same  efi"ect.  The  zeal  and  per- 
tinacity with  wtiich  the  Envoy  pushed  the  matter,  though, 
as  appears  from  his  own  letters,  highly  offensive  to  the 
Lords  of  Antwerp,  and  not  over-welcome  to  the  Princess 
Margaret,  shows  the  urgency  of  his  directions  from  home. 
But  there  were  laws  in  Antwerp ;  and  its  citizens  could 
not  be  touched,  "  in  life  or  goods,"  for  ofi'ences  merely 
charged,  and  not  proved  against  them,  even  though  the 
accuser  were  a  king.  Some  three  or  four  hundred  volumes 
were  seized  in  various  cities  and  burnt,  and  Endhoven  was 
temporarily  imprisoned.  But  he  was  neither  banished"  nor 
his  property  confiscated ;  and  while  Hackett  was  picking 
up  a  few  hundred  stray  copies,  thousands,  as  they  all  knew 
too  well,  were  making  their  way  towards  England,  or  were 
already  there. 

THE      BISHOPS      ON      THE      ALERT. 

Finding  it  out  of  the  question  to  put  a  forcible  stop  to 
the  circulation  of  the  terrible  book, — to  them  the  book 
of  doom, — the  prelates  now  fell  upon  a  new  expedient. 
They  resolved  to  clear  the  market  by  wholesale  purchase 
from  the  printers  and  dealers  !  This  Warham,  the  Pri- 
mate of  England,  efi'ected  so  far  as  it  was  possible,  through 
Hackett  the  Envoy,  at  an  expense  to  his  archiepiscopal 


148  THE  ENGLISH  BIBLE. 

province,  of  about  five  thousand  dollars  of  our  money. 
This  was  in  the  spring  of  1527. 

Tuustal,  meanwhile,  was  equally  busy  in  searching  for 
copies  already  in  the  country,  but  not  with  the  same  suc- 
cess. He  was  just  proceeding  to  more  stringent  measures 
in  his  diocese,  which  should  utterly  root  out  the  obnoxious 
influence,  when  his  appoinment,  in  conjunction  with 
Wolsey  and  Sir  Thomas  More,  to  a  political  embassy  to 
France,  obliged  him  to  leave  the  matter  in  charge  with  his 
Vicar.  He,  either  through  disinclination  or  fear,  did 
nothing  about  it,  and  the  persecution  was  stayed  till  his 
superior's  return,  in  October. 

Wolsey  came  back  from  France  with  the  new  dignity  of 
Vicar-general  of  the  Pope  through  the  King's  dominions, 
that  is,  with  authority  to  exercise  all  the  functions  of  the 
Pope  in  England.  Its  ecclesiastical  affairs  were  placed 
under  his  absolute  control;  its  clergy,  from  highest  to 
lowest,  became  subject  to  him  as  their  supreme  Head. 
His  entrance  on  the  high  office  was  signalized  by  a  general 
council  which  met  in  obedience  to  his  summons,  at  West- 
minster, in  November.  Having  pompously  announced  that 
"  now  all  the  abusions  of  the  church  should  be  amended," 
he  opened  the  court  by  an  examination  of  two  distinguished 
advocates  of  the  truth,  Arthur  and  Bilney,  on  the  charge 
of  heresy.  After  thus  giving  his  countenance  to  the  pro- 
ceeding, and  by  his  arrogant  and  contemptuous  bearing 
towards  men  infinitely  better  than  himself,  setting  a  worthy 
example  to  his  bishops,  he  left  the  trial  in  their  hands, 
being  himself  occupied  with  "  the  affairs  of  the  realm." 

The  sad  result  of  the  trial  must  be  told.  On  the  2d  of 
December,  Arthur  abjured,  nor  is  he  ever  again  heard  from 
in  the  ranks   of  the  faithful.     On  the  7th,  Bilney,  after 


tyndale's  new  testament.  149 

enduring  for  four  days,  every  species  of  mental  torture, 
from  the  threats,  tbe  persecutions,  and  sophistical  casuistry 
of  Tunstal,  West,  and  Fisher,  followed  his  example.  The 
next  day,  his  head  bowed  with  shame,  and  his  heart  even 
then  racked  with  remorse,  he  bore  a  faggot  at  St.  Paul's, 
and  was  then  remanded  to  prison  during  the  Cardinal's 
pleasure.  Being  at  length  released,  he  returned  to  Cam- 
bridge in  a  state  of  agony,  scarcely  short  of  despair ;  so 
that  for  some  two  years  his  friends  dared  not  leave  him 
alone,  day  or  night.  "  They  comforted  him,"  says  Lati- 
mer, "  as  they  could,  but  no  comfort  would  serve.  And 
as  for  the  comfortable  places  of  Scripture,  to  bring  them 
to  him,  was  as  though  a  man  should  run  him  through  the 
heart  with  a  sword."  But  at  length.  He  who  forgave  the 
denial  of  Peter,  spoke  peace  to  the  troubled  conscience  of 
his  servant,  and  filled  his  soul  with  more  than  its  early  joy 
in  believing.  Saying  that  he  must  ''go  up  to  Jerusalem,^'' 
he  now  took  leave  of  his  friends,  and  passing  through  the 
shires  of  Norfolk  and  Essex,  he  spent  many  weeks  preach- 
ing the  gospel  from  house  to  house,  and  distributing  copies 
of  Tyndale's  New  Testament.  Being  at  length  seized  near 
London,  the  timid,  but  most  loving  and  sincere  disciple,  re- 
ceived strength  to  confess  his  Master  boldly  before  men, 
and  went  up  to  Heaven  in  the  fiery  chariot  of  martyrdom. 
Thus  determined  and  thorough  were  the  measures  of 
the  high  powers  in  Church  and  State,  for  the  suppression 
of  the  word  of  Grod.  Boyal  and  priestly  prohibitions, 
decrees,  mandates,  secret  inquisition,  foreign  diplomacy 
and  persecution,  had  all  been  tried  in  turn.  And  what  had 
they  effected  ?  So  mightily  grew  and  prevailed  the  de- 
mand for  the  Scriptures,  that  even  while  Endhoven  lay  in 
prison   at   Antwerp   and  the  issue  of  his   case  was  still 


150  THE    ENGLISH    BIBLE. 

doubtful,  another  Antwerp  printer,  if  not  indeed  more 
than  one,  had  judged  the  prospect  of  pecuniary  profit  worth 
the  risk  of  embarking  in  the  same  enterprise.  On  the  23d 
of  May,  1527,  Hackett  writes  to  Wolsey,  that  in  spite 
of  all  his  efforts,  "  some  7ieiv  printers  of  the  town  of  Ant- 
werp were  oifering  in  the  market  divers  English  books, 
entitled  'The  New  Testament,'"  and  that  he  had  heard  of 
"  more  than  two  thousand  such  like  English  books  "  having 
been  offered  for  sale  at  the  late  Frankfort  fair.  Hundreds 
of  these  were  already  on  English  ground.  Ooe  John 
Raimund,  or  Ruremonde,  an  Antwerp  printer,  was  convicted 
of  having  caused  fifteen  hundred  of  Tyndale's  New  Testa- 
ments to  be  printed  at  Antwerp,  and  of  bringing  five  hun- 
dred copies  into  England  at  one  time.  To  such  an  extent 
had  the  city  of  London,  especially,  been  pervaded  by  the 
influence,  within  the  space  of  two  years,  that  it  was  deemed 
unsafe  for  one  who  had  been  at  all  "  inclined  to  the  new 
learning,"  even  to  breathe  its  air.  Thus,  as  recorded  in 
Tunstal's  Register  of  the  trials  in  his  diocese,  Sebastian 
Herris,  Curate  of  the  Parish  Church  of  Kensington,  being 
charged  with  possessing  a  copy  of  Tyndale's  New  Testa- 
ment, is  forbidden,  at  his  dismissal,  to  tarry  or  abide  with- 
in the  city  of  London,  {being  so  dangerous  a  2J^uce  to  be 
infected  with  heresy)  above  a  day  and  a  night ;  but  to  go 
thence  elsewhere,  and  not  approach  near  the  city  anywhere, 
four  miles  in  circuit,  for  the  space  of  two  years. 

The  enemies  of  light  could  not  yet  perceive  the  futility 
of  their  warfare ;  and  while  the  divine  seed  sown,  as  it 
were,  by  the  winds  of  Heaven,  was  taking  root  in  every 
direction,  they  were  still  erecting  their  clumsy^ulwarks 
to  prevent  its  entrance  into  England. 


CHAPTER  III. 


TYNDALE'S   REFORMATORY  WRITINGS. 

"WicKLiFFE  had  closed  his  labors  as  Reformer  by  giving 
the  Bible  to  his  countrymen.  In  his  case,  this  was  the 
natural  order  of  things ;  for  the  mind  of  his  age  needed 
to  be  awakened  by  a  long  preparatory  process,  to  a  consci- 
ousness of  the  want  which  the  Scriptures  only  could  sup- 
ply. "With  Tyndale  the  process  was  just  the  reverse. 
The  voice  of  his  age  cried  out  for  the  word  of  God ;  and 
it  was  his  first  object,  by  meeting  this  demand,  to  lay  a 
broad  and  sure  foundation  for  the  great  work  of  Reform, 
which  he  saw  to  be  accomplished.  The  New  Testament 
being  completed  and  sent  forth  on  its  mission,  he  now 
appears  as  the  practical  Reformer,  and  applies  its  teachings 
in  a  direct  assault  upon  the  doctrines  and  practices  of  the 
Romish  clergy. 

Well  worthy  does  he  show  himself,  in  this  respect  also, 
to  be  the  Elisha  of  the  elder  prophet.  In  his  exposures 
of  time-honored  abuses,  and  his  stern  rebukes  of    those 


152  THE    ENGLISH    BIBLE. 

"  Cesarean  Prelates,"  who  sought  to  perpetuate  them  for 
their  own  selfish  ends,  we  see  the  same  fearless  moral  energy, 
the  same  reference  to  the  supreme  authority  of  God's 
word,  and  heartfelt  love  and  respect  for  the  common  people, 
which  distinguished  Wickliffe.  With  this  deep  earnest- 
ness was  mingled,  moreover,  a  vein  of  homely,  racy  humor, 
not  unlike  that  of  Luther,  which  imparts  often  a  vivacity 
and  quaint  force  to  his  indignant  remonstrances  and  appeals, 
well  adapted  to  influence  the  popular  mind. 

In  these  writings  we  find  abundant  confirmation  of  one 
important  fact,  before  alluded  to :  that  from  the  days  of 
Wickliffe,  there  had  been  little  progress,  in  any  respect, 
connected  with  the  essential  well-being  of  the  nation, 
excej)t  so  far  as  the  influence  of  the  Bible  had  extended. 
In  the  character  of  the  clergy,  the  state  of  learning  in  the 
universities,  the  moral  condition  of  the  people,  and  the 
recognition  of  their  rights,  either  civil  or  religious,  on  the 
part  of  government,  the  main  current  had  flowed  steadily 
towards  a  lower  deep  of  darkness,  degradation,  and 
oppression.  The  counter  current  which  was  now  be- 
ginning to  make  itself  felt  in  every  sphere,  owed  all  its 
springs,  and  for  the  most  part  can  be  directly  traced,  to 
the  reviving  influence  of  the  Scriptures.  A  century  and 
a  half  nearly,  during  which  the  vernacular  Bible  had  been 
thrust  out  of  the  reach  of  the  mass  of  the  community, 
had  developed  in  the  character  of  the  English  race  no  in- 
herent forces  for  retrieving  its  condition,  and  forming  itself 
into  a  free,  intelligent  and  virtuous  people. 

The  two  treatises  with  which  he  immediately  followed 
his  New  Testament,  marked  him  out  before  all  Christen- 
dom, as  a  standard  bearer  in  the  cause  of  the  Bible  and  the 
people,  against  that  of  the  Pope  and  priesthood,     He  had 


tyndale's  reformatory  writings.  153 

sent  forth  the  New  Testament  without  his  name;  "follow- 
ing," as  he  says,  "  the  counsel  of  Christ,  which  exhorteth 
men  to  do  their  good  works  secretly,  and  to  be  content 
with  the  conscience  of  well-doing."  The  consequence  was, 
however,  that  certain  anonymous  works  against  the  pre- 
lacy by  other  hands,  written  in  a  spirit  of  bitterness  and 
railing  with  which  Tyndale  had  no  fellowship,  were  con- 
fidently ascribed  to  him.  In  the  preface  to  the  first  of 
these  treatises,  therefore,  he  disavows  the  books  falsely 
charged  to  him,  and  henceforth  appears  under  his  own 
name.  From  this  time  onward,  it  was  a  name  of  power 
among  both  the  friends  and  enemies  of  the  truth,  in  Eng- 
land. 

The  "  Parable  of  the  Wicked  Mammon"  is  a  development, 
rich  with  Scripture  knowledge,  and  Christian  experience, 
of  the  connection  between  faith  and  works  in  our  salvation, 
and  strikes  at  the  root  of  the  popish  trust  in  mere  out- 
ward observances  and  ceremonies.  Two  or  three  brief  quo- 
tations must  suffice  from  this  work,  as  a  sample  of  its  man- 
ner, and  an  illustration  of  the  pure  morality,  and  univer- 
sal benevolence  resulting  from  the  doctrine  of  justification 
by  faith,  rightly  understood,  and  truly  received  into  the 
heart. 

"  The  Spirit  of  God  accompanieth  faith,  and  bringeth 
with  her  light,  wherewith  a  man  beholdeth  himself  in  the 
law  of  God,  and  seeth  his  miserable  bondage  and  captivity, 
and  humbleth  himself,  and  abhorreth  himself;  she  bringeth 
God's  promises  of  all  good  things  in  Christ.  God  worketh 
with  his  word  and  in  his  word.  And  as  his  word  is  preach- 
ed, faith  rooteth  herself  in  the  heart  of  the  elect,  and  as 
faith  entereth  and  the  word  of  God  is  believed,  the  power 
of  God  looseth  the  heart  from  the  captivity  and  bondage 


154  THE    ENGLISH    BIBLE. 

under  sin,  and  knitteth  and  coupleth  bim  unto  God,  and  to 
the  will  of  God ;  altereth  him,  changeth  him  clean,  fashion- 
eth  and  forgeth  Lim  anew,  giveth  him  power  to  love,  and 
to  do  that  which  before  it  was  impossible  for  him  either  to 
love  or  do,  and  turneth  him  unto  a  new  nature,  so  that  he 
loveth  that  which  before  he  hated,  and  hateth  that  which 
before  he  loved  ;  and  is  clean  altered  and  changed,  and 
contrary  disposed  ;  and  is  knit  and  coupled  fast  to  God's 
will,  and  naturally  bringcth  forth  good  works  .  .  .  And 
that  doth  he  of  his  own  accord,  as  a  tree  bringeth  forth 
fruit  of  her  own  accord.  And  as  thou  needest  not  to  bid 
a  tree  bring  forth  fruit,  so  there  is  no  law  to  put  unto  him 
that  believeth  and  is  justified  by  faith.  .  .  .  And  as  a  whole 
man  when  he  is  athirst  tarrieth  but  for  drink,  and  when  he  is 
hungry  abideth  but  for  meat,  and  then  drinketh  and  eateth 
naturall}'^,  even  so  is  the  faithful  ever  athirst  and  an  hun- 
gred  after  the  will  of  God,  and  tarrieth  but  for  occasion. 
"Where  faith  is  mighty  and  strong,  there  is  love  fervent,  and 
deeds  plenteous,  and  done  with  exceeding  meekness  ;  where 
faith  is  weak,  there  love  is  cold,  and  the  deeds  few,  and 
seldom  bears  flowers  and  blossoms  in  winter. 

"  The  order  of  love  and  charity  which  some  dream,  the 
Gospel  of  Christ  knoweth  not  of;  that  a  man  should  be- 
gin at  himself,  and  serve  himself  first,  and  then  descend,  I 
wot  not  by  what  steps.  Love  seeketh  not  her  own  profit, 
but  maketh  a  man  to  forget  himself,  and  to  turn  his  profit 
to  another  man,  as  Christ  sought  not  himself,  or  his  own 
profit,  but  ours.  The  term,  'myself,'  is  not  in  the  Gospel; 
neither  yet  father,  mother,  brother,  kinsman,  that  one 
should  be  preferred  in  love  above  another.  But  Christ  is 
all  in  all  things.  Every  Christian  man  to  another  is 
Christ  himself-  and  thy   neighbor's  need   hath   as  good 


TYNDALE  S  REFOKMATORy  WRITINGS.  155 

a  right  to  thy  goods  as  hrith  Christ  himself,  which  is  heir 
and  lord  over  all.  And  look,  what  thou  owcst  to  Christ, 
that  thou  owest  to  thy  neighbor's  need  ;  to  thy  neighbor 
owest  thou  thine  heart,  thyself,  and  all  that  thou  hast  and 
canst  do.  .  .  .  In  Chris'.,  we  are  all  of  one  degree,  without 
respect  of  persons.  N  jtwithstanding,  though  a  Christian 
man's  heart'be  open  to  all  men,  and  receiveth  all  men,  yet, 
because  that  his  ability  of  goods  extendeth  not  so  far,  this 
provision  is  made,  that  every  man  shall  care  for  his  own 
household,  as  father  and  mother,  and  thine  elders  that 
have  holpen  thee,  wife,  children  and  servants.  When  thou 
hast  done  thy  duty  to  thy  household,  and  yet  hast  farther 
abundance  of  the  blessing  of  God,  that  thou  owest  to  the 
poor  that  cannot  labor,  or  would  labor  and  can  get  no 
work,  and  are  destitute  of  friends.  ...  If  thy  neighbors 
which  thou  knowest  be  served,  and  thou  yet  have  superflu- 
ity, and  hearest  necessity  to  be  among  the  brethren  a  thou- 
sand miles  off,  to  them  thou  art  debtor.  Yea,  to  the  very 
infidels  we  bo  debtors  if  they  need,  so  far  forth  as  we  main- 
tain them  not  against  Christ,  or  to  blaspheme  Christ. — 
Thus  is  every  man  that  needeth  thy  help,  thy  father, 
mother,  sister,  and  brother  in  Christ ;  even  as  every  man 
that  doth  the  will  of  the  Father,  is  father,  mother,  brother, 
and  sister  unto  Christ." 

The  work  which  followed  this — "■  The  Obedience  of  a 
Christian  Man" — is  an  exposition  of  the  teachings  of  Scrip- 
ture, on  the  social  duties  of  men,  in  all  the  relations  of 
life.  It  was  intended  as  a  defence  of  the  Bible  against 
the  charge  brought  by  the  clergy,  that  its  circulation 
among  the  laity  tends  to  confusion  and  insubordination  in 
society.  He  proves  that  it  is  they,  on  the  contrary,  who, 
by  substituting  for  the  true  light  of  God's  word  their  own 


156  THE    ENGLISH    BIBLE. 

false  doctrines  and  traditions,  have  subverted  all  social 
order  and  virtue ;  and  that  their  zeal  against  the  Bible  is 
but  hatred  of  that,  which,  if  permitted  to  go  freely  among 
tne  people,  would  strip  them  of  their  ill-gotten  power. 

In  the  first  part  of  the  treatise,  husbands  and  wives,  pa- 
rents and  children,  masters  and  servants,  sellers  and  buyers, 
rulers  and  ruled,  are  taught  their  mutual  duties,  as  set 
forth  by  direct  Scripture  precept,  or  as  plainly  deducible 
from  its  great  law  of  love.  He  is  no  less  faithful  to  the 
king  than  to  the  subject,  warning  him  of  the  dangers  to 
which  monarchs  are  especially  liable,  and  of  the  final  ac- 
count to  be  rendered  by  him  of  all  he  has  done  in  his  high 
ofl&ce,  both  good  and  bad.  It  is  a  strong  proof,  that  the 
tyrannical  course  of  Henry  VIII.  was  due  less  to  his  nat- 
ural disposition,  than  to  the  evil  influence  of  his  spiritual 
guides,  that  he  was  deeply  impressed  by  this  treatise  when 
he  first  read  it,  and  remarked  :  "  This  is  a  book  for  me, 
and  for  all  kings." 

The  second  part  is  a  searching  exposure  of  the  abuses 
practised  on  the  people  by  the  priesthood,  their  corruption 
of  Christian  doctrines  and  ordinances  ;  the  "  feigned  ordi- 
nances," by  which  they  rule  so  cruelly  over  the  consciences 
of  men,  and  wring  from  them  their  worldly  goods;  their 
usurpation  of  the  civil  power,  and  the  consequent  impover- 
ishment, internal  confusion,  and  foreign  wars,  into  which 
their  insatiable  ambition  and  avarice  has  plunged  the 
realm. 

"  '  Curse  them  [so  he  represents  the  Pope  as  saying  to 
his  vassals,  the  clergy]  four  times  in  the  year.  Make 
them  afraid  of  every  thing,  and  namely  [especially]  to 
touch  mine  anointed ;  and  make  them  to  fear  the  sentence 
of  the  church,  suspensions,  excommunications,  and  curses. 


tyndale's  REFor^-MATOuy  wraxi^iGS,  157 

Be  they  right  or  wrong,  bear  them  in  haud  that  they  are 
to  be  leared  yet.  Preach  me  and  mine  authority,  and 
how  terrible  a  thing  my  curse  is,  and  how  black  it  makes 
their  souls.  On  the  holidays,  which  were  ordained  to 
preach  God's  word,  set  up  long  ceremonies,  long  matins, 
long  masses,  and  long  even-songs,  and  all  in  Latin,  that 
they  understand  not ;  and  roll  them  in  darkness,  that  ye 
may  lead  them  wherever  ye  will.  And  lest  such  things 
should  be  too  tedious,  sing  some,  say  some,  pipe  some,  ring 
the  bells,  and  lull  them  and  rock  them  asleep.'  And  yet 
Paul  (2  Cor.  xiv)  forbiddeth  to  speak  in  the  church  or 
congregation,  save  in  the  tongue  that  all  understand.  For 
the  layman  thereby  is  not  ediGed  or  taught.  How  shall 
the  layman  say  Amen  (saith  Paul)  to  thy  blessing  or 
thanksgiving,  when  he  wotteth  not  what  thou  sayest  ?  He 
wotteth  not  whether  thou  bless  or  curse. 

"  '  What  then  suith  the  Pope,  '  what  care  I  for  Paul  ?  I 
command,  by  virtue  of  obedience,  to  read  the  Gospel  iu 
Latin ;  let  them  not  pray  but  in  Latin ;  no,  not  their  Pa- 
ter Noster.  If  any  be  sick,  go  also  and  say  them  a  Gos- 
pel, and  all  in  Latin ;  yea,  to  the  very  corn  and  fruits  of 
the  field,  in  the  procession  week,  preach  the  Gospel  iu 
Latin.  Make  the  people  believe  that  it  shall  grow  the 
better.'  It  is  as  good  to  preach  it  to  swine  as  to  men,  if 
thou  preach  it  in  a  tongue  which  they  understand  not. — 
How  shall  I  prepare  myself  to  God's  commandments  ? 
How  shall  I  be  thankful  to  Christ  for  his  kindness  ?  How 
shall  I  believe  the  truths  and  promises  which  God  hath 
sworn,  while  thou  tellest  them  unto  me  in  a  tongue  whicL 
I  understand  not  ? 

"  '  What  then,'  saith  my  Lord  of  Canterbury,  to  a  priest 
that  would  have  had  the  New  Testament  gone  forth  in 


153  THE    ENGLISH    BIBLE. 

Englist ;   '  what,'   saitli  he,    '  wouldst  thou  that  the  lay 
people  should  wete  what  we  do  ?'  " 

"  Mark  well  how  many  parsonages  or  vicarages  are  there 
in  the  realm,  which,  at  the  least,  have  a  plow-land*  apiece.  • 
Then  note  the  land  of  bishops,  abbots,  priors,  nuns,  knights 
of  St.  John,  cathedral  churches,  colleges,  chauntries,  and 
free  chapels.  For  though  the  house  fall  in  decay,  and  the 
ordinance  of  the  founder  be  lost,  yet  will  they  not  lose 
their  lands.  What  cometh  once  in,  may  never  more  out. 
They  make  a  free  chapel  of  it,  so  that  he  which  enjoyeth- 
it,  shall  do  nought  therefore.  Besides  all  this,  how  many 
chaplains  do  gentlemen  find  at  their  own  cost,  in  their  own 
houses  ?  How  many  sing  for  souls  by  testaments  ?  Then 
the  proving  of  testaments,  the  prizing  of  goods,  the  Bishop 
of  Canterbury's  prerogative,  Is  that  not  much  through 
the  realm  in  a  year  ?  Four  offering  days,  and  privy  tithes. 
There  is  no  servant,  but  that  he  shall  pay  somewhat  of  his 
wages.  None  shall  receive  the  body  of  Christ  at  Easter, 
be  he  never  so  poor  a  beggar,  or  never  so  young  a  lad  or 
maid,  but  they  must  pay  somewhat  for  it.  Tlien  mortua- 
ries for  forgotten  tithes  (say  they.)  And  yet  what  parson 
or  vicar  is  there,  that  will  forget  to  have  a  pigeon-house, 
to  peck  up  somewhat  both  at  sowing-time,  and  harvest, 
when  corn  is  ripe  ?  They  will  forget  nothing.  No  man 
shall  die  in  their  debt ;  or  if  any  man  do,  he  shall  pay  it 
when  he  is  dead.  They  will  lose  nothing.  Why  ?  It  is 
God's;  it  is  not  theirs.     It  is  St.  Hubert's  rents,  St.  Al- 

*  "  The  measurement  of  the  ploxc-land  varied  in  different  counties,  and 
in  the  same  counties  at  different  times.  In  general,  it  designated  as  much 
arable  land  as  could  be  managed  and  tilled  by  one  plough,  and  its  team  of 
horses  or  oxen,  in  the  year  ;  having  meadow,  pasture,  and  houses  and  cattle 
attached  to  it."— Note  to  Works  of  the  Eng.  Reformers,  Vol.  I.,  p.  544. 


TYNDALe's    rtEFORMATOKY    WRITINGS.  159 

ban's  lands,  St.  Eduiond's  right,  St.  Peter's  patrimony. — 
Item — if  a  man  die  in  another  man's  parish,  besides  that 
he  must  pay  at  home  a  mortuary  for  forgotten  tithes,  he 
must  there,  also,  pay  the  best  he  there  hath.  Whether  it  be 
a  horse  of  twenty  pound,  or  how  good  soever  he  be ;  either 
a  chain  of  gold  of  an  hundred  marks,  or  five  hundred  pounds, 
if  it  so  chance.  Then  bead-rolls.  Item — christenings, 
ehurchings,  banns,  weddings,  offering  at  weddings,  offering 
of  wax  and  lights,  which  come  to  their  damage ;  besides 
the  superstitious  waste  of  wax,  in  torches  and  tapers, 
throughout  the  land.  Then  brothers  and  pardoners. — 
What  get  they  also  by  confessions  ?  .  .  .  .  Soul-masses, 
dirges,  month-minds,  peace-minds.  All-souls  day,  and  tren- 
tals.  The  mother  church  and  the  high  altar  must  have 
somewhat  in  every  testament.  Offerings  at  priest's  first 
masses.  Item — no  man  is  professed,  of  whatsoever  reli- 
gion it  be,  [i.  e.  of  whatever  clerical  order,]  but  he  must 
bring  somewhat.  Then  hallowing  or  rather  conjuring  of 
churches,  chapels,  altars,  super-altars,  chalice,  vestment, 
bells.  Then  book,  bell,  candlestick,  organs,  vestments, 
copes,  altar-cloths,  surplices  ;  towels,  basins,  ewers,  sheep, 
censor,  and  all  manner  of  ornaments,  must  be  found  them 
freely,  they  will  not  give  a  mite  thereunto.  Last  of 
all,  what  swarms  of  begging  friars  are  there  !  The  parson 
sheareth,  the  vicar  shaveth,  the  parish  priest  polleth,  the 
friar  scrapeth,  and  the  pardoner  pareth ;  we  lack  but  a 
butcher  to  pull  oif  the  skin. 

"  What  get  they  in  their  spiritual  law  (as  they  call  it) 
in  a  year,  at  the  arches,  and  in  every  diocese  ?  What  get 
the  commissioners  and  officials,  with  their  somners  and  ap- 
paritors, by  bawdrey  in  a  year  ?  Shall  ye  not  find  curates 
enough,  which  to  flatter  the   commissioners   and   officials 


160  THE    ENGLISH    BIBLE. 

withal,  that  they  may  go  quit  themselves,  shall  open  to 
them  the  confessions  of  the  richest  of  their  parishes,  whom 
they  cite  privately,  and  lay  to  their  charges  secretly.  If 
they  desire  to  know  their  accusers,  '  Nay,'  say  they,  '  the 
matter  is  known  well  enough,  and  to  more  than  ye  are 
ware  of.  Come,  lay  your  hand  on  the  book ;  if  ye  for- 
swear yourself,  we  shall  bring  proofs ;  we  will  handle  you, 
we  will  make  an  ensample  of  you.'  Oh,  how  terrible  are 
they  !  '  Come  and  swear,'  say  they,  '  that  you  will  be 
obedient  to  our  injunctions !'  And  by  that  craft,  wring 
they  their  purses,  and  make  them  drop  as  long  as  there  is 
a  penny  in  them." 

** '  Not  given  to  filthy  lucre,  but  abhorring  covetous- 
ness ;'  and  as  Peter  saith,  '  Taking  the  oversight  of  them, 
not  as  though  ye  were  compelled  thereunto,  but  willingly. 
Not  of  desire  of  filthy  lucre,  but  of  a  good  mind ;  not  as 
though  ye  were  lords  over  the  parishes.  Over  the  parishes, 
quoth  he  !  0  Peter,  Peter,  thou  wast  too  long  a  fisher  ; 
thou  wast  never  brought  up  at  the  arches,  neither  wast 
Master  of  the  Rolls,  not  yet  Chancellor  of  England.  They 
are  not  content  to  reign  over  king  and  emperor,  and  the 
whole  earth;  but  challenge  authority  also  in  heaven  and  in 
hell.  It  is  not  enough  for  them  to  reign  over  all  that  are 
quick,  but  have  created  them  a  purgatory,  to  reign  also 
over  the  dead,  and  to  have  one  kingdom  more  than  God 
himself  hath." 

"  They  take  away  first  Grod's  word,  with  faith,  hope, 
peace,  unity,  love,  and  concord  ;  then  house  and  land,  rent 
and  fee,  tower  and  town,  goods  and  cattle,  and  the  very 
meat  out  of  men's  mouths.     All  these  live  by  purgatory. 


tyndale's  reformatory  writings.  161 

When  others  weep  for  their  friends,  they  sing  merrily ; 
•when  others  lose  tlioir  friends,  they  get  friends.  The  Pope, 
with  all  his  pardons,  is  grounded  on  purgatory.  Priests, 
monks,  canons,  friars,  with  all  other  swarms  of  heretics,  do 
but  employ  purgatory,  and  fill  hell.  Every  mass,  say  they, 
delivereth  one  soul  out  of  purgatory.  If  that  were  true — 
yea,  if  ten  masses  were  enough  for  one  soul — yet  were  the 
parish  priests  and  curates,  of  every  parish,  sufficient  to 
scour  purgatory.  All  the  other  costly  work  of  men  might 
be  well  spared." 

In  the  course  of  the  treatise,  he  explains  his  view  of 
what  the  Scriptures  teach  respecting  the  Sacraments,  the 
offices  in  the  church,  the  support  of  the  clergy,  and  their 
relation  to  the  civil  power.  In  regard  to  all  these,  his 
views  coincide  in  all  essential  points  with  those  of  Wick- 
liff'e.  There  are  but  two  Sacraments,  Baptism  and  the 
Lord's  Supper;  and  their  efficacy  depends  on  the  spirit  iu 
which  they  are  received. — There  are  but  two  offices  in  the 
Church  of  Christ,  Bishop  or  Elder,  and  Deacon.  The 
duty  of  the  first  is  to  serve  the  church  in  spiritual  things, 
being  "  nothing  but  an  officer  to  teach,  and  to  minister  the 
Sacraments  ordained,  and  not  to  be  a  mediator  between 
God  and  us."  "According  as  every  man  believeth  God's 
promises,  longeth  for  them,  and  is  diligent  to  pray  unto 
God  to  fulfill  them,  so  is  his  prayer  heard,  as  good  the 
prayer  of  a  cobbler,  as  of  a  cardinal ;  and  of  a  butcher, 
as  of  a  bishop  ;  and  the  blessing  of  a  baker  that  knoweth 
the  truth,  is  as  good  as  the  blessing  of  our  most  holy 
father  the  pope."  "  Christ,  when  he  had  fulfilled  his 
course,  anointed  his  apostles  and  disciples,  with  the  same 
spirit,  and  sent  them  forth,  without  all  manner  of  dhsguis- 
ing,  like  other  men  also,  to  preach  the  atonement    and 


162  THE    ENGLISH    BIBLE. 

peace  which  Christ  had  made  between  God  and  man.  The 
apostles,  likewise,  disguised  no  man,  but  chose  men  anointed 
with  the  same  spirit ;  one  to  preach  the  word  of  God, 
whom  we  call,  after  the  Greek  tongue,  a  bishop  or  priest ; 
that  is,  in  English,  an  overseer  and  an  elder."  "  This 
overseer,  because  he  was  taken  from  his  own  business  and 
labor,  to  preach  God's  word  unto  the  parish,  hath  right, 
by  the  authority  of  his  office,  to  challenge  an  honest  living 
of  the  parish,  as  thou  mayst  see  in  the  Evangelists,  and 
also  in  Paul.  For  who  will  have  a  servant,  and  will  not 
give  him  meat,  drink,  and  raiment,  and  all  things  neces- 
eary  ?  How  they  would  pay  him,  whether  in  money,  or 
assign  him  so  much  rent,  or  in  tithes,  as  the  guise  now  is 
in  many  countries,  was  at  their  liberty."  "  Likewise,  in 
every  congregation  chose  they  another  after  the  same  ex- 
ample, and  even  so  anointed,  as  it  is  to  see  in  the  said 
chapter  of  Paul,  and  Acts  vi.  Whom  after  the  Greek 
word  wc  call  deacon ;  that  is  to  say,  in  English,  a  servant, 
or  a  minister,  whose  office  it  was  to  help  and  assist  the 
priest,  and  gather  up  his  duty,  and  gather  for  the  poor  of 
the  parish,  which  were  destitute  of  friends,  and  could  not 

work Every  man  gave  according  to  his  ability, 

and  as  God  put  into  his  heart,  to  the  maintenance  of  the 
priest,  deacon,  and  other  common  ministers,  and  of  the 
poor,  and  to  find  learned  men  to  teach,  and  so  forth." 
"  '  We,'  will  they  say,  '  are  the  pope,  cardinal,  and  bishops; 
all  authority  is  ours.  The  Scripture  pertaineth  unto  us, 
and  is  our  possession.  And  we  have  a  law,  that  whoso- 
ever presumes  to  preach  without  the  authority  of  the 
bishops,  is  excommunicate  in  the  deed-doing.  Whence, 
therefore,  hast  thou  thine  authority  ?'  will  they  say.  '  The 
old  Pharisees  had  the^  Scripture  in  captivity,  likewise,  and 


tyndale's  reformatory  writings.  163 

asked  Christ :  By  what  authority  doest  thou  these  things  ? 
....  Christ  asked  them  another  question,  and  so  will  I  do 
our  hypocrites.  Who  sent  you  ?  God  ?  Nay,  he  that  is 
sent  of  God,  speaketh  God's  word.  Now  speak  ye  not 
God's  word,  nor  anything,  save  your  own  laws,  made  clean 
contrary. unto  God's  word.  .  .  .  And  as  for  mine  authority, 
or  who  sent  me,  I  report  me  unto  my  works,  as  Christ. 
If  God's  word  bear  record  that  I  say  truth,  why  should 
any  man  doubt  but  that  God,  the  father  of  truth  and  of 
lio-ht,  hath  sent  me  ?  .  .  .  '  By  this  means,  thou  wilt  that 
every  man  be  a  preacher,'  will  they  say.  '  Nay,  verily.  For 
God  will  that  not,  and  therefore,  will  I  it  not;  no  more 
than  I  would  that  every  man  were  mayor  of  London, 
or  every  man  of  the  realm  King  thereof.  God  is  not  the 
God  of  dissention  and  strife,  but  of  unity  and  peace,  and 
of  good  order.  I  will,  therefore,  that  where  a  congrega- 
tion is  gathered  together  in  Christ,  one  be  chosen  after  tlie 
rule  of  Paul,  and  that  he  only  preach,  and  else  no  man 
openly  :  but  that  every  man  teach  his  household  after  the 
same  doctrine.  But  if  the  preacher  preach  false ;  then 
whosoever's  heart  God  moveth,  to  the  same  it  shall  be  law- 
ful to  rebuke  and  improve  the  false  teacher,  with  the  clear 
and  manifest  Scripture,  and  that  same  is,  no  doubt,  a  true 
prophet  sent  of  God.  For  the  Scripture  is  God's,  and 
their's  that  believe,  and  not  the  false  prophets.'  " 

The  law  of  spiritual  life  and  growth,  as  contained  with- 
in each  congregation  of  believers,  being  derived  continually 
from  Christ,  the  ever  present  head,  is  beautifully  developed 
in  the  following  passage  : 

"  Here  [within  the  congregations  of  Christ]  all  thing  is 
free  and  willingly  ;  and  the  Holy  Ghost  bringeth  them 
together,  which  maketh  their  wills  free,  and  ready  to  be- 


164  THE    ENGLISH    BIBLE. 

Stow  themselves  on  their  neighbor's  profit :  and  they  that 
come  offer  themselves,  and  all  that  they  have,  or  can  do 
to  serve  the  Lord  and  their  brethren  ;  and  every  man,  as 
he  is  found  apt  and  meet  to  serve  his  neighbor,  is  put  into 
office.  And  of  the  Holy  Ghost  are  they  sent,  with  the 
consent  of  their  brethren,  and  with  their  own  consent,  also  ; 
and  God's  word  ruleth  in  that  congregation,  into  which 
word  every  man  confirmeth  [conformeth]  his  will ;  and 
Christ,  which  is  always  present,  is  the  head." 

He  is  equally  explicit  in  regard  to  the  clerical  claim, 
still  as  perfectly  intact  as  in  the  days  of  Wickliffe,  of  ex- 
emption from  civil  jurisdiction.  In  the  summary,  at  the 
close  of  the  book,  of  its  contents,  he  says  : 

"  I  proved,  also,  that  all  men,  without  exception,  are 
under  the  temporal  sword,  whatsoever  names  they  give 
themselves.  Because  the  priest  is  chosen  out  of  the  lay- 
men, to  teach  this  obedience,  is  that  a  lawful  cause  for  him 
to  disobey  ?  Because  he  prcucheth  that  the  laymen  may 
not  steal,  is  it,  therefore,  lawful  for  him  to  steal  unpunished? 
Because  thou  teachest  me  that  I  may  not  kill,  or  if  I  do, 
the  King  must  kill  me  again,  is  it,  therefore,  lawful  for 
thee  to  kill  and  go  free  ?  .  .  .  .  The  priests  of  the  old  law, 
with  their  high  bishop,  Aaron,  and  all  his  successors 
though  they  were  anointed  by  God's  commandment,  and 
appointed  to  serve  God  in  his  temple,  and  exempt  from  all 
offices  and  ministering  of  worldly  matters,  were  yet  under 
the  temporal  sword,  if  they  brake  the  laws.  ...  I  proved, 
also,  that  no  king  hath  power  to  grant  them  such  liberties." 
The  clergy  still  held  the  monopoly  of  all  the  high  secu- 
lar offices  of  the  kingdom.  Thus  speaks  the  Reformer  on 
this  point : 

"  Let  kings  take  their  duty  of  their  subjects,  and  that 


tyndale's  reformatory  writings.  165 

is  necessary  to  the  defeucc  of  the  realm.  Let  them  rule 
their  realms  themselves,  with  the  help  of  laymen  that  are 
sage,  wise,  learned,  and  expert.  Is  it  not  a  shame  above  all 
shames,  and  a  monstrous  thing,  that  no  man  should  be  found 
able  to  govern  a  worldy  kingdom,  save  by  bishops  and  pre- 
lates, that  have  forsaken  the  world,  and  are  taken  out  of  the 
world,  and  appointed  to  preach  the  Kingdom  of  God  ?  .  .  . 
To  preach  Grod's  word  is  too  much  for  half  a  man  ;  and  to 
minister  a  temporal  kingdom  is  too  much  for  half  a  man  ; 
either  other  requireth  an  whole  man;  one,  therefore,  can- 
not well  do  both.  .  .  .  Paul  saith  in  the  ninth  chapter  of  the 
first  Corinthians,  '  Woe  is  me  if  I  preach  not.'  A  terrible 
saying,  verily,  for  popes,  cardinals,  and  bishops.  If  he 
had  said,  '  Woe  be  unto  me  if  I  fight  not,  and  move  prin- 
ces to  war,  or  if  I  increase  not  St.  Peter's  patrimony,  (as 
they  call  it),'  it  had  been  a  more  easy  saying  for  them." 

The  Preface  to  this  book,  itself  about  thirty  pages  in 
length,  is  properly  a  tract  in  defence  of  the  translation  of 
the  Scriptures  into  the  mother  tongue,  and  their  unrestricted 
use  by  the  laity.  He  argues  this  from  the  fact,  that  Moses 
gave  the  people  of  Israel  the  law  in  their  mother  tongue ; 
that  the  Prophets  wrote,  and  David  uttered  his  psalms  in 
the  mother  tongue  ;  that  the  sermons,  recorded  in  the  Acts, 
were  preached  to  the  people  in  the  mother  tongue ;  that  the 
Bible  was  translated  by  Jerome  into  his  mother  tongue. — 
"  What  should  be  the  cause,"  he  asks,  "  that  we,  which 
walk  in  the  broad  da}',  should  not  see  as  well  as  they  that 
walked  in  the  night,  or  that  we  should  not  see  as  well  at 
noon  as  they  did  in  the  twilight?  Came  Christ  to  make 
the  world  more  blind  ?  By  this  means,  Christ  is  the  dark- 
ness of  the  world,  and  not  the  light,  as  he  saith  himself" 
He  pleads  for  it,  also,  because  Grod   in  the  Old  Testament, 


166  THE    ENGLISH    BIBLE. 

required  in  all  the  people  a  knowledge  of  the  law,  and 
Christ,  in  the  New,  commanded  to  search  the  Scriptures; 
because,  as  Christ  foretold,  there  are  false  Christs  and 
false  prophets,  whose  deeds  and  doctrines  must  be  judged 
by  Scripture ;  because  the  spiritual  guides  of  the  people 
teach  doctrines  contrary  to,  and  subversive  of  each  other, 
and  it  cannot  be  known  which  is  right  but  by  Scripture. 

"  *  Nay,'  say  they,  '  the  Scripture  is  so  hard,  that  thou 
couldst  never  understand  it,  but  by  the  doctors.'  That  is, 
I  must  measure  the  meteyard  by  the  cloth.  Here  be 
twenty  cloths  of  divers  lengths,  and  divers  breadths;  how 
shall  I  be  sure  of  the  length  of  the  meteyard  by  them  ?  I 
suppose,  rather  must  I  be  sure  of  the  length  of  the  mete- 
yard, and  thereby  measure  and  judge  the  cloths.  If  I 
must  first  believe  the  doctor,  then  is  the  doctor  first  true, 
and  the  truth  of  the  Scripture  dependeth  of  his  truth  ;  and 
so  the  truth  of  Grod  springeth  of  the  truth  of  man.  Thus, 
■Antichrist  turneth  the  roots  of  the  trees  upwards."  It 
was  pretended,  moreover,  that  no  man  could  understand 
Scripture,  till  he  had  made  himself  master  of  philosophy, 
by  the  study  of  Aristotle  and  the  doctors.  This  leads 
Tyndale  to  notice  the  character  of  the  so-called  philosophy 
taught  in  the  universities,  which  we  find  to  be  no  other 
than  those  same  solemn  frivolities  of  Dun  Scotus,  and  the 
other  scholastics  which  had  driven  all  true  learning  out  of 
Oxford  in  the  fourteenth  century.  As  then,  it  was  con- 
nected with  the  bitterest  hostility  to  revelation.  No  one 
could  speak  with  more  authority  on  this  point  than  Tyn- 
dale, who  had  resided  there  so  many  years,  and  had  parta- 
ken in  the  struggle  consequent  on  the  attempt  of  Christian  ■ 
scholars  to  introduce  the  Greek  and  Roman  classics,  and 
the  original  Scriptures  into  the  course  of  academic  study. 


TYNDALE  S    REFORMATORY    WRITINGS.  167 

He  maintains,  that,  so  far  from  this  philosophy  being  ne- 
cessary to  prepare  one  for  a  knowledge  of  the  Scriptures, 
these  are  needed  to  protect  him  from  the  contaminating 
influence  of  the  philosophy.  "  And  then,  if  they  go  abroad, 
and  walk  by  the  fields  and  meadows  of  all  manner  of  doc- 
tors and  philosophers,  they  should  catch  no  harm.  They 
should  discern  the  poison  from  the  honey,  and  bring  home 
nothing  but  that  which  is  wholesome." 

"  But  now,"  he  proceeds,  "  do  ye  clean  contrary,  ye  drive 
them  from  God's  word,  and  will  let  no  man  come  thereto 
until  he  have  been  two  years  master  of  art.  First  they 
nosel  them  in  sophistry,  and  in  benefundatum.  And  there 
corrupt  they  their  judgments  with  apparent  arguments, 
and  with  alleging  unto  them  texts  of  logic,  of  natural  j^hi- 
lautia^  of  metaphysic,  and  moral  philosophy,  and  of  all 
manner  of  books  of  Aristotle,  and  of  all  manner  of  doctors, 
which  yet  they  never  saw.  Moreover,  one  holdeth  this, 
another  that ;  one  is  a  real,  another  a  nominal.  What 
wonderful  dreams  they  have  of  their  predicaments,  univer- 
sals,  second  intentions,  qui  dities,  haec  scities,  and  rela- 
tives. And  whether  specia  ftmdata  in  chimera  be  vera 
species.  And  whether  this  proposition  be  true,  7ion  ens 
est  aliquid,  whether  ens  be  cequivocum,  or  univocum. — 
Ens  is  a  voice  only,  say  some.  E}%s  is  univocum^  saith 
another,  and  descendeth  into  ens  creatiim,  and  into  e7is  in- 
creatwn^  per  modus  inirinsecos.  "When  they  have  this 
way  brawled  eight,  ten,  or  twelve  years,  or  more,  and  after 
that  their  judgments  are  utterly  corrupt,  then  they  begin 
their  divinity ;  not  at  the  Scripture,  but  every  man  taketh 
a  sundry  doctor,  which  doctors  are  as  sundry,  and  as  di- 
vers, the  one  contrary  unto  the  other,  as  there  are  divers 
fashions  and  monstrous  shapes,  none  like  another,  among 


168  THE    ENGLISH    BIBLE. 

our  sects  of  religion.  Every  religion,  every  university, 
almost  every  man,  bath  a  sundry  divinity.  Now  whatso- 
ever every  man  findeth  with  his  doctor,  that  is  his  Gospel, 
and  that  only  is  true  with  him,  and  that  holdeth  he  all  his 
life  long ;  and  every  man  to  maintain  his  doctor  withal, 
corrupteth  the  Scripture,  and  fashioueth  it  after  his  own 
imagination,  as  a  potter  doth  his  clay.  Of  what  text  thou 
provest  hell,  will  another  prove  purgatory,  another  limbo 
jmtrum^  another  the  assumption  of  our  lady,  and  another 
shall  prove  of  the  same  text  that  an  ape  hath  a  tail,  ^nd 
of  what  text  the  grave  [gray]  friar  proveth  that  our  lady 
was  without  original  sin,  will  the  hlack  friar  prove  that  she 
was  conceived  in  original  sin." 

How  finely,  after  this  exposure  of  the  folly  of  humau 
wisdom,  does  Tyndale  say  :  "  God  is  not  man's  imagina- 
tion, but  only  that  which  he  saith  of  himself  God  is  noth- 
ing but  his  law  and  his  promises;  that  is  to  say,  that 
which  he  biddeth  thee  to  do,  and  that  which  he  biddeth 
thee  believe  and  hope.  God  is  but  his  word,  as  Christ 
saith,  (John  viii.,)  I  am  that  I  say  unto  you;  that  is  to 
say,  That  which  I  preach  am  I,  my  words  are  spirit  and 
life.  God  is  that  only  which  he  testifyeth  of  himself;  and 
to  imagine  any  other  thing  than  that,  is  damnable  idolatry. 
Therfore  saith  the  118th  Psalm,  Happy  are  they  which 
search  the  testimonies  of  the  Lord ;  that  is  to  say,  that 
which  God  testifyeth  and  witnesseth  unto  us.  But  how 
shall  I  that  do,  when  ye  will  not  let  me  have  his  testimo- 
nies or  witnesses,  in  a  tongue  which  I  understand  ?  Will 
ye  resist  God  ?  Will  ye  forbid  him  to  give  his  Spirit 
unto  the  lay,  as  well  as  unto  you  ?  Hath  he  not  made  the 
English  tongue  ?  Why  forbid  ye  him  to  speak  in  the 
English  tongue,  then,  as  well  as  in  Latiu  ?" 


CHAPTER  IV. 


CARDINAL  WOLSEY'S  MEASURES  TO  SILENCE 
TYNDALE. 

It  is  not  strange  that  a  voice  like  this  should  sorely  have 
disturbed  thos3,  whose  treachery  and  oppression  was  thus 
laid  open,  in  plain  English,  for  all  classes  of  the  laity  to 
read  and  comment  on.  No  wonder  that  Cardinal  Wolsey 
and  his  Bishops  thought  it  necessary  to  silence  this  terrible 
censor,  who,  from  his  obscure  retreat  in  a  foreign  land, 
could  stretch  forth  his  hand,  and  shake  the  very  pillars  of 
the  hierarchy.  From  this  time,  it  became  one  of  their 
leading  objects,  by  force  or  fraud,  to  compass  his  appre- 
hension and  death. 

In  June,  1528,  the  Lord  Cardinal  instructed  Sir  John 
Hackett,  still  envoy  at  the  Court  of  Brabant,  to  procure 
from  the  Princess  Regent  his  arrest,  on  the  charge  of 
heresy,  and  that  of  two  other  men,  viz.,  Roye,  errone- 
ously supposed  to  be  still  engaged  with  him  in  translating 
the  Bible,  and  Harman,  a  wealthy  and  honorable  English 
merchant  residing  in  Antwerp,  who  was  known   to  have 


170  THE    ENGLISH    BIBLE. 

been  zealously  engaged  in  bringing  the  New  Testament 
into  England.  But  Hackett  was  obliged  to  reply,  that  the 
Privy  Council,  after  debating  the  case  with  him,  had  de- 
cided that  it  was  unlawful,  even  for  the  Emperor  himself, 
to  deliver  up  a  heretic,  except  after  examination  first  held 
where  he  was  ;  and  not  then,  except  by  advice  of  Inquisi- 
tors of  the  faith  there  present.  They  promised,  however, 
to  apprehend  the  obnoxious  persons  if  they  could  be  found 
together  with  their  books;  and  if,  on  being  confronted 
with  learned  men  from  England — who  it  was  requested 
mio-ht  be  sent  over  for  the  purpose — their  guilt  should  ap- 
pear, they  were  to  be  delivered  to  Wolsey,  or  punished 
there,  "  according  to  their  deeds. 

After  fourteen  days'  search,  Harman  and  his  wife — "  as 
greatly  suspected  of  such  like  faction  as  he?-  husband  is  " 
— were  taken  and  committed  to  prison,  and  an  inventory 
of  their  goods  delivered  to  the  Emperor.  Still,  Hackett 
saw  so  little  prospect  of  success  in  this  case,  that  he  sug- 
gests to  Wolsey  to  drop  the  charge  of  heresy,  and  demand 
Harman  as  a  traitor  to  the  King  of  England. 

"  I  would,"  writes  this  honorable  ambassador,  "  that  your 
Grace  had  this  Richard  Harman  there  in  England  ;  for, 
as  I  hear,  he  is  a  Roethe  of  great  mischief.  And  to  get 
him  out  of  these  countries,  I  know  no  better  means,  at  this 
time,  than,  if  the  King's  Highness  have  any  action  of  trea- 
son at  him,  that  his  Highness,  or  your  Grace,  write  a  good 
letter  to  my  Lady,  that  she  should  send  you  the  foresaid 
Harman,  as  traitor  to  the  King — leaving  the  heresy  beside, 
to  the  correction  of  these  countries,  if  your  Grace  think  so 
^^ood  ;  and  in  this  manner  we  may  have  tivo  strings  to  our 
bow :  for  I  doubt  greatly,  after  the  statutes  of  these  coun- 
trle-i,  that,  revoking  his  heresies,  for  the  first  time  he  will 


WOLSEl  S    MEASURES    TO    SILEAX'E    TYNUALE.  171 

escape  with  a  slender  punisliment ;  but  for  treason  to  the 
King,  they  cannot  pardon  him  in  these  parts,  after  the 
Statutes  of  our  Intercourse,  dated  the  year  1505.  I  cer- 
tify your  Grace,  that  it  were  a  good  deed,  and  very  conve- 
nient, to  chastise  these  Lutherans  that  be  accused  of  her- 
esy, that  they  were  as  well  comprehended  in  the  '  Inter 
course '  as  traitors  be ;  for  as  soon  as  they  be  past  the 
seas,  they  know  no  more  God,  neither  King." 

Wolsey  seized  on  this  hint,  and  obtained  a  letter  from 
the  King,  requesting  that  Harman  should  be  given  up  as 
a  traitor.  But  the  Princess  required,  in  turn,  specifica- 
tions of  his  crime ;  and  finally,  Hackett  informs  his  Grace, 
that,  "  notwithstanding  the  King's  patent  letters,  the  Lady 
Margaret  would  not  deliver  up  the  heretics."  Mr.  Harman 
was  released,  after  an  imprisonment  of  more  than  seven 
months— the  term  for  which  he  could  be  detained  having 
expired,  without  any  proof  having  been  brought  by  Hackett 
of  the  charges  made  against  him.  But  the  Envoy  soon 
found  that  he  had  been  meddling  with  a  game,  at  which 
two  could  play.  Having  gone  to  Antwerp  a  few  weeks 
after,  on  some  business  for  the  King,  he  found  himself  ar- 
rested at  Harman's  suit  for  all  the  costs  and  charges  of  his 
imprisonment ;  since  "  the  law  of  Antwerp  [a  free,  imperial 
city,]  had  aforetime  declared  him,  by  their  sentence,  ab- 
solute, free  and  frank,  of  all  such  actions  as  the  Margrave, 
or  the  Scout  of  Antwerp,  as  officers  of  the  Prince,  by  my 
information  laid  to  his  charge."  Next  day,  he  was  obliged 
to  answer  for  himself  before  the  city  Senate ;  and  after  a 
mortifying  detention,  was  only  permittted  to  depart,  on 
condition  that  he  should  appear  in  person,  or  by  his  Pro- 
curator, whenever  summoned,  for  the  farther  prosecution 
of  the  cause.     On  arriving  at  Brussels,  he  made  his  com- 


172  THE    "ENGLISH    BIBLE. 

plaint  to  the  Princess  and  her  Council,  who  professed 
themselves  much  displeased  with  the  treatment  he  had  re- 
ceived ;  but  except  a  severe  rebuke  to  the  Lords  of  Ant- 
werp, and  a  requisition  that  their  Amant  (the  officer  who 
had  caused  his  arrest)  should  ask  his  pardon,  no  amend 
was  made  for  the  affront,  and  Hackett  did  not  again  find  it  ex- 
pedient to  be  much  in  Antwerp.  The  British  merchant  had 
read  him  a  lesson,  which  he  long  had  cause  to  remember. 

All  efforts  to  discover  Tyndale  and  Roye  had  been  thua 
far  unsuccessful ;  but  Wolsey  was  not  disheartened.  It 
had  been  ascertained,  that  the  Testaments  with  which 
Harman  had  been  concerned,  "were  sent  to  him  out  of  Gei-- 
many'''' — a  vexatious  proof  that  Warham's  expensive  pur- 
chase had  not  exhausted  the  supply.  But  it  might  also 
furnish  a  clue  to  the  translators.  He  therefore  took  into 
his  confidence  two  Friars  of  Greenwich — West  and  Flegg 
by  name — and  dispatched  them  secretly  to  Cologne,  with 
a  letter  to  Counsellor  Rincke  (the  same  who  lent  his  influ- 
ence to  Cochlgeus  in  1525)  soliciting  his  aid  for  the  appre- 
hension of  these  two  men,  as  well  as  in  buying  up  "all 
books  printed  in  the  English  language."  They  were  au- 
thorized by  the  Cardinal  to  draw  on  Hackett,  for  whatever 
money  was  necessary  to  effect  these  objects. 

The  honorable  Councillor  was  prompt  to  meet  the  wishes 
of  his  great  friend  at  the  Court  of  England.  He  informs 
him  that  he  had  himself  been  to  Frankfort  on  the  business, 
and,  "  by  gifts  and  presents^''  had  so  conciliated  the  Frank- 
fort Consuls,  as  well  as  some  of  the  Senators  and  Judges,  as 
to  secure,  through  their  aid,  possession  of  "all  the  books 
from  every  quarter,"  which,  but  for  his' labors,  would  soon 
have  been  brought  over  to  England  and  Scotland,  "enclosed 
in  packages,  artfully  covered  over  with  and  concealed  in  flax 


wolsey's  measures  to  silence  tyndale.        173 

I  have,"  he  adds,  "hitely  brought  the  printer  himself,  John 
Schott  [of  Straaburg],  before  the  Consuls,  Judges,  and  Sena- 
tors of  Frankfort.  I  put  hiin  upon  oath,  that  he  should  con- 
fess whatever  books  he  had  printed  in  the  English  lan- 
guage, the  German,  French,  or  any  other  idiom.  Then, 
upon  his  said  oath,  he  confessed  that  he  had  as  yet  printed 
only  one  thousand  books  {sex  quaternionum)  and  one 
thousand  {novsm  quaternionum)  and  this  by  the  order 
of  Roye  and  Hutchyn   [Tyndale],  who,   wanting  money, 

were  not  able  to  pay  for  the  books  printed 

Wherefore,  I  have  purchased  them  almost  all,  and  now 
have  them  in  my  house  at  Cologne.''''  He  then  desires  in- 
structions how  he  shall  dispose  of  them ;  and  closes  with 
the  suggestion  :  "  As  to  myself  and  mine,  by  the  favor  of 
God,  possibly  there  may  he  an  opportunity  for  his  Royal 
Highness  and  your  Grace  to  recompense  us.  May  your 
Grace,  therefore,  prosper  many  happy  years  !" 

Of  Tyndale,  Roye,  or  their  accomplices,  he  could  as 
yet  find  no  trace  ;  but  he  promises,  with  his  "  utmost  dili- 
gence" to  ferret  out  their  haunts,  and  get  them  into  cus- 
tody. For  further  consultation  with  his  Grace  on  this  im- 
portant mission,  he  sent  back  "West,  together  with  his  own 
son  and  a  confidential  servant,  "  who,"  he  says,  "  will  con- 
ceal and  keep  quiet  the  whole  matter,  whatsoever  your 
Grace  may  commit  to  them — whom  I  specially  send  over 
into  the  presence  of  the  King  and  your  Grace,  for  the 
more  convenient  dispatch  of  this  very  business,  that  I  may 
explain  and  execute  the  matter  in  a  way,  which  may  be 
acceptable  to  the  King's  grace  and  yours." 

He  seems,  however,  to  have  spent  his  labor,  and  the 
money  of  his  employers,  to  but  little  profit.  The  two 
thousand  books  referred  to  in  his  letter,  as  purchased  from 


174  THE    ENGLISH    BIBLE. 

Scliott,  were,  no  doubt,  those  anonymous  productions  be- 
fore alluded  to,  written  by  Hoye  and  others  against  the 
Cardinal.  Schott,  who  was,  of  course,  anxious  to  rid  him- 
self of  his  dead  stock,  may  have  baited  Rincke,  by  pretend- 
ing that  it  consisted,  in  part,  of  works  by  Tyndale ;  but  it 
does  not  appear  thai  he  ever  printed  any  thing  at  Stras- 
burg. 

As  to  the  Reformer  himself,  the  Councillor  was  entirely 
off  the  track.  Tyndale  was,  at  this  time,  at  Marburg  in 
Hesse  Cassel,  where  the  new  and  flourishing  Protestant 
University,  the  first  ever  established,  had  called  together 
men  whose  eminent  scholarship,  and  congeniality  of  views 
with  his  own,  must  have  rendered  it  a  residence  equally 
delightful  and  advantageous.  During  this  year  and  part 
of  the  next,  (1528-9,)  the  only  press  then  existing  at  Mar- 
burg was  kept  in  busy  occupation  by  Tyndale  and  his  be- 
loved associate.  Frith,  with  new  works  in  English,  for  the 
instruction  of  their  countrymen.  Here  is  dated  the  short 
treatise  on  the  Scripture  Doctrine  of  Marriage,  and  the  ex- 
position of  1  Cor.  vii;  both  of  which  were  intended  to 
counteract  those  lax  and  corrupting  views  of  the  conjugal 
relation,  which  had  gained  currency  through  the  influence 
of  a  clergy  without  principle  and  above  law. 

Meanwhile,  Tyndale's  writings  and  his  New  Testament 
were  making  steady  progress  in  England,  in  spite  of  all 
vigilance  and  opposition.  It  is  a  deeply  interesting  fact, 
that  it  was  among  the  humble  believers,  whom,  under  the 
name  of  Lollards,  we  have  seen  enduring  persecution  for 
their  attachment  to  WickllfFe's  Bible,  that  the  most  eager 
interest  was  manifested  in  the  improved  translation.  They 
had  still  their  secret  meetings,  for  the  reading  and  exposi- 
tion of  the  Scriptures,  and  other  devout  exercises,  in  Lon- 


wolsey's  measures  to  silence  tyndale.        175 

don,  as  also  in  Colchester,  Witham,  "Braintree,  and  various 
other  places  in  Essex,  and  in  the  Friary  of  Clare  in  Suf- 
folk ;  aud  it  was  chiefly  from  their  ranks  that  the  Bishops 
were  furnished  with  the  victims,  through  whose  punish- 
ment they  sought  to  check  in  the  community  the  growing 
desire  to  become  acquainted  with  the  Scriptures.  Yet  we 
have  the  most  satisfactory  evidence,  that  they  continued 
to  increase  in  numbers,  as  well  as  in  the  depth  and  ardor 
of  their  piety,  and  that  their  influence  was  felt  as  a  power- 
ful leaven  through  the  humbler  classes  of  the  community. 
These  "  Congregations" — so  they  were  now  called — seem  to 
have  been  strictly  assemblies  of  believers,  organized  on  the 
model  of  the  apostolic  churches,  for  the  stated  worship  of 
God,  and  the  enjoyment  of  the  sacraments.  They  will 
come  again  before  our  notice,  in  the  story  of  Frith,  and 
still  more  distinctly  during  the  persecutions  in  the  reign 
of  Mary. 

But  alarming  as  was  the  aspect  of  affairs  in  England, 
M'hen  Rincke  made  his  report  to  the  Lord  Cardinal,  that 
dignitary  seems  to  have  given  no  farther  attention  to  the 
mattei".  Before  the  end  of  the  year,  he  was  too  busy  iu 
negotiating  the  King's  divorce,  and  in  otherwise  propping 
up  his  own  falling  fortunes,  to  concern  himself  either  with 
apprehending  heretics,  or  rewarding  the  services  of  such 
friends  as  the  disinterested  patrician  of  Cologne.  Hence- 
forth, he  appears  only  as  a  subordinate  character,  and  a 
man  of  higher  mark  takes  the  lead  in  this  great  conflict. . 


CHAPTER    V. 


THE  NEW  ANTAGONIST. 

The  steady  progress  of  light,  during  the  two  years  fol- 
lowing the  introduction  of  Tyndale's  New  Testament  into 
England,  had  convinced  the  prelacy,  that  it  could  not  be 
arrested  by  authority  and  force  alone.  The  public  mind 
was  deeply  infected  with  the  new  opinions  ;  and  the  more 
they  strove  against  the  influence  by  outward  violence,  the 
iQore  it  grew.  They  were  at  length  compelled  to  yield  so 
much  to  truth,  as  to  come  down  from  their  proud  position, 
and  meet  it  in  its  own  way ;  to  submit  to  what  they  most 
abhorred — the  discussion  of  the  case,  before  the  people,  in 
plain  English.  They  felt  too,  little  as  they  would  have 
been  willing  to  confess  it,  that  no  common  opponent  would 
answer,  to  measure  lances  with  William  Tyndale.  They 
selected  for  the  purpose  one,  who  in  natural  genius,  ac- 
complished scholarship,  and  power  as  a  writer,  was,  by 
common  consent,  the  choicest  man  in  England.  His  readi- 
ness and  felicity  as  an  extempore  orator,  had  gained  him 
the  name  of  "  the  English  Demosthenes;"  while  his  lite- 
rary productions  had  placed  him  among  the  most  elegant 
Latinists,  and  the  most  admired  philosophers  and  wits  of 
Europe.     He  had  held  conspicuous  public  stations  already 


THE    NEW    ANTAGONIST.  177 

more  than  twenty  years  ;  and  as  Advocate,  Under-SherlfF 
and  Justice  of  the  Peace  for  the  city  of  London,  had  won 
the  highest  general  estimation,  as  a  man  of  profound  legal 
knowledge,  and  almost  unequalled  sagacity  and  skill  in  the 
management  of  public  business.  In  1517,  in  compliance 
with  the  imperative  command  of  Henry  VIII.,  though 
much  against  his  (Twn  wishes,  he  entered  the  immediate 
service  of  the  crown  ;  and  from  that  time,  exercised  a  lead- 
ing influence  on  the  affairs  of  the  realm.  But  his  power 
was  not  merely  that  of  talent  and  station.  His  unspotted 
domestic  virtue,  true  old-Roman  contempt  of  luxury  and 
show,  and  his  unimpeachable  integrity  in  every  public  re- 
lation, in  a  time  of  unsurpassed  extravagance  and  corrup- 
tion— when  even  cardinals  and  bishops  hardly  made  a  se- 
cret of  their  profligacy,  and  bribery  was  the  rule  in  courts 
of  justice — had  given  him  a  moral  weight  in  the  nation, 
such  as  was  possessed  by  no  other  man. 

It  is  not  strange,  then,  that  when  Sir  Thomas  More 
consented,  at  the  solicitation  of  the  Bishops,  to  undertake 
the  refutation  of  the  growing  heresy,  its  opponents  should 
have  indulged  the  most  confident  anticipations,  that  its 
influence  with  the  popular  mind  was  about  to  suffer  a  com- 
plete overthrow.  There  were  strong  reasons,  too,  why  the 
friends  of  truth  should  be  satisfied  with  the  choice.  In 
addition  to  Sir  Thomas  More's  reputation  for  candor  and 
uprightness,  he  had  shown  leanings^  in  his  previous  life, 
which  might  naturally  lead  them  to  expect  from  him  greater 
liberality  towards  their  views,  than  could  be  looked  for 
from  the  clergy.  He  had  been  early  linked,  by  the  most 
intimate  literary  and  religious  friendships,  with  the  cause 
of  progress.  From  his  youth,  he  had  been  a  passionate 
lover  of  classic  learning,  then  so  closely  associated  with 


178  THE   ENGLISH    BIBLE. 

the  study  of  the  Scriptures.  The  enlightened  and  pious 
Dean  Colet,  before  mentioned  as  the  first  lecturer  on  Paul's 
Epistles  at  Oxford,  was  his  spiritual  confidant  and  adviser, 
and.  was  regarded  by  him  with  the  reverence  and  affection 
due  to  a  father.  While  still  at  the  university,  his  acquain- 
tance with  Erasmus,  who  had  already  commenced  his 
splendid  career  as  the  champion  of  liberal  culture,  gave  a 
powerful  impulse  and  direction  to  his  mental  development. 
It  could  hardly  fail,  that,  while  drinking  with  Erasmus  at 
the  fountain  of  the  Muses — experiencing  in  himself  the 
solid  benefits,  and  the  exquisite  pleasures  of  communion 
with  the  great  masters  of  thought  and  style — young  More 
should  come  to  look,  with  his  friend's  eyes,  on  the  obstacles 
then  opposed  to  the  progress  of  true  learning,  in  the  char- 
acter and  influence  of  the  clergy.  He  became,  heart  and 
soul,  one  of  the  noble  corps,  who,  with  Erasmus  at  its 
head,  broke  the  ranks  of  Obscurantism  in  the  sixteenth 
century.  The  weapons  of  his  leader,  those  light  arrows 
feathered  with  wit,  but  tipt  with  the  fatal  poison  for  the 
darklings — truth — were  those  also  which  More  excelled  in 
handling.  Indeed,  in  the  opinion  of  Dean  Colet,  he  was 
the  only  real  wit  of  his  time  in  England ;  and  he  used  his 
power  unsparingly  against  the  owls  and  bats,  who  had  so 
long  held  undisturbed  reign  in  the  schools. 

The  friendship,  cemented  by  so  many  kindred  quali- 
ties, grew  with  years.  On  Erasmus'  second  visit  to  Eng- 
land, enriched  with  wider  knowledge,  and  laden  with  lau- 
rels, More's  house  was  his  home  ;  and  it  was  here  that  he 
wrote  his  famous  satire  on  the  Monks — "  Moria,  or  The 
F raise  of  Folly.'''  In  1515,  being  sent  by  the  King  on 
a  commercial  embassy  to  the  Netherlands,  Sir  Thomas 
had  the  pleasure  of  doing  his  friend  a  very  good  service  in 


THK    NEW    ANTAGONIST.  179 

reference  to  this  book,  as  well  as  in  another  respect,  of  still 
more  importance  to  the  interests  of  religion.  Through 
Erasmus,  whom  he  met  at  Bruges,  and  other  distinguished 
literati  of  the  Low  Countries,  he  was  made  acquainted, 
more  fully  than  he  could  be  in  England,  with  the  hostility 
which  all  of  them — but  especially  Erasmus — had  to  en- 
counter from  the  enemies  of  liberal  learning.  At  this 
time,  the  contest  raged  mainly  round  two  points — his  Ma- 
ria, whose  biting  satire  had  deeply  wounded  the  self-love 
of  the  lower  clergy,  against  whom  it  was  particularly  di- 
rected; and  his  projected  publication  of  the  Greek  New 
Testament  from  -manuscripts,  with  a  new  Latin  transla- 
tion. 

The  Theological  Faculty  of  the  University  of  Louvain,* 
took  it  upon  themselves,  in  a  special  manner,  to  frown  on 
these  irreverent  and  sacrilegious  proceedings  ;  even  decry- 
ing, with  the  utmost  fury,  the  study  of  the  Greek  language, 
as  not  only  useless,  but  in  the  highest  degree  pernicious  to 
theologians.  One  of  their  number,  Martin  Dorpius  by 
name,  a  respectable  Latin  scholar,  and  a  well-disposed 
man — but  with  conservative  tendencies,  which  led  him  to 
take  alarm  at  every  thing  new — had  assailed  the  labors  of 
Erasmus,  in  a  published  letter,  severely  censuring  the 
Moria;  but,  above  all,  the  proposed  New  Testament. 
Tbis,  as  an  innovation  tending  to  weaken  the  authority  of 
tradition,  he  deprecated  as  full  of  peril  to  the  interests  of 
religion.  The  temperate  reply  of  Erasmus  was  followed 
by  another  letter  from  Dorpius,  reiterating  his  previous 
charges.  By  this  time,  Erasmus  was  at  Basle,  fully  oc- 
cupied with  printing  his  New  Testament ;  and  More  felt 
himself  called  on  to  take  up  the  pen  in  his  defence.  He 
*  Founded  in  1426  ;  in  the  16tli  century,  Jl  had  6000  students. 


ISO  THE    ENGLISH    BIBLE. 

addressed  a  letter  to  Dorpius,  in  which  he  vindicated  the 
propriety  of  thus  exposing  the  faults  of  the  clergy,  and 
fully  justified  the  efforts  of  his  friend  to  promote  the  study 
of  the  Scriptures.  Dorpius  had  said,  that  the  theologian 
has  more  important  and  more  difficult  things  on  his  hands 
than  the  expla7iation  of  the  Bible  !  More  wishes  him  joy, 
that  a  book,  in  which  Jerome  and  Augustine  found  so 
much  which  was  difficult,  should  all  be  so  plain  and  easy 
to  him ;  yet  wonders  much  that  he  could  place  the  hair- 
splitting questions,  arbitrary  distinctions,  and  stupid  repe- 
titions of  Peter  Lombard's  Sentences,  and  similar  works, 
in  a  higher  rank  than  the  study  of  the  Bible,  So  convin- 
cingly, yet  in  so  kind  a  spirit,  did  he  combat  the  alleged 
necessity  and  obligation  of  adhering  to  the  Vulgate,  as 
sole  and  supreme  authority,  and  plead  for  a  thorough 
knowledge  of  Greek,  as  the  only  reliable  basis  of  New 
Testament  interpretation,  that  Dorpius  was  wholly  brought 
over  to  his  views.  He  immediately  devoted  himself  with 
such  ardor  to  the  study  of  Greek,  and  took  part  so  deci- 
dedly with  the  friends  of  liberal  learning,  that  his  colleagues 
turned  all  their  vengeance  on  him,  as  an  apostate  from 
their  ranks,  and  never  rested  till  they  drove  him  from  the 
Professor's  chair. 

Two  years  after,  1517,  Sir  Thomas  More  surprised  the 
literary  world  by  his  philosophical  romance,  Utopia  ;  a 
splendid  blossom  of  genius  and  culture,  but  deriving  its 
chief  interest  to  us  from  its  views  of  various  matters  con- 
nected with  religion,  especially  of  religious  toleration  and 
the  rights  of  conscience.  A  few  of  the  most  noticeable 
points  only  can  be  mentioned. 

The  citizens  of  The  Happy  Republic,  with  few  excep- 
tions, believe  in  an  infinite,  incomprehensible,  everywhere 


THE    NEW    ANTAGONIST.  181 

present  Being,  wtom  they  call  Father;  but  from  this  cen 
tre,  they  diverge  into  many  varieties  of  religious  belief. 
It  is  one  of  their  fundamental  laws  that  "  eacli  man  can 
live  according  to  his  oivn  religion^  and  that  no  violence  be 
used  to  convert  him  to  another  faiths  For  they  think  it 
unseemly  and  arrogant  to  attempt  to  force  on  all  what  one 
may  happen  to  esteem  as  true;  and  if  there  is  but  one  true 
religion,  it  must,  in  due  time,  by  the  aid  of  reason  and 
gentleness  in  its  advocates,  win  the  victory  by  its  own  in- 
herent power.  Christianity  found  easy  access  among  this 
people  ;  and  the  adherents  of  the  old  faith  neither  sought  to 
deter  any  from  becoming  its  converts,  or  persecuted  them 
afterwards.  Only  when  a  new  proselyte  was  so  excessive 
and  denunciatory  in  his  zeal  as  to  endanger  the  public 
peace,  he  was  exiled,  without  farther  punishment,  from 
Utopia.  Disbelievers  in  the  immortality  of  the  soul,  and 
in  a  future  state  of  rewards  and  punishments,  were  alone  dis- 
franchised on  account  of  their  opinions,  being  counted  as 
brutes,  incapable  of  being  influenced  by  the  motives  neces- 
sary to  constitute  a  useful  or  safe  citizen.  Yet  even  these 
were  not  punished  with  death,  nor  terrified  by  threats  into 
hypocrisy ;  and  the  priests  and  fathers  of  the  community 
sought,  by  argument  and  reason,  to  cure  them  of  their 
folly. 

The  organization  of  the  priesthood  in  the  republic,  fur- 
nishes opportunity  for  many  significant  hints  at  abuses  in 
the  Romish  Church.  The  priests  of  Utopia  are  few  in 
number,  only  thirteen  in  each  city ;  they  are  chosen  by 
the  people  from  the  worthiest  of  the  land, — of  the  good, 
the  best — and  that  there  may  be  no  constraint  in  the  mat- 
ter, by  secret  vote.  Public  opinion  demands  of  them  the 
greatest  sanctity  of  character ;    which,   however,   is  not 


182  THE    ENGLISH    BIBLE. 

deemed  incompatible  with  marriage.  They  conduct  the 
public  worship  and  exercise  the  office  of  censors  of  morals, 
with  no  power,  however,  except  to  counsel  and  admonish. 
Thej  hold  no  civil  office.  In  case  of  war  a  deputation  of 
priests  accompanies  the  army,  their  business  being  to  pray 
— first,  for  peace  ;  second,  for  a  bloodless  victory  to  their 
countrymen.  They  have  the  charge  of  education,  and  the 
result  of  their  capacity  and  fidelity  is  universal  intelligence 
and  mental  activity.  The  youth  of  Utopia  are  thoroughly 
grounded  by  them,  first,  in  good  morals  and  religion  ;  then 
in  the  principles  of  their  government,  in  music,  logic,  math- 
ematical science,  astronomy,  and  in  the  Greek  language 
and  literature.  All  instruction  is  given _in  the  mothei 
tongue. 

A  recent  Catholic  biographer  of  Sir  Thomas  More,* 
anxious  for  the  consistency  of  this  great  champion  of  the 
Church,  maintains  that  the  Utopia  is  to  be  regarded  as 
simply  a  work  of  pleasantry  and  fancy,  not  intended  as  an 
exposition  of  his  real  views  either  on  government  or  reli- 
gion. But  it  is  not  usual  to  write  even  a  work  of  fancy  for 
the  express  purpose  of  commending  principles  exactly  the 
opposite  of  those  which  the  author  approves ;  especially, 
when  the  application  to  the  circumstances  of  the  time  is  so 
unavoidable  as  in  the  Utopia.  Taken,  moreover,  in  con- 
nection with  his  previous  relations,  no  room  is  left  to  doubt 
that,  at  this  period,  he  recognized  the  need  at  many 
points  of  a  reform  in  the  existing  church,  and  that  he  was 
the  advocate  of  universal  religious  toleration. 

Such  had  been  the  general  character  and   course  of  this 

*  Rudhart,  Thomas  Morus,  Augsburg,  1852.  To  this  interesting  work 
I  am  indebted  for  the  materials  of  the  foregoing  chapter. 


THE    NEW   ANTAGONIST.  183 

distinguished  man  till  past  his  fortieth  year.*  On  what 
grounds  he  could  appear  as  the  antagonist  of  Tyndale  ; 
why  he  did  not  rather  welcome  the  honest  efforts  of  the 
Reformer,  and  join  hand  in  hand  with  him  to  promote  the 
progress  of  intelligence  and  religion,  must  have  been  a  mat- 
ter of  query  to  many  at  that  day.  But  however  that  was 
to  be  explained,  at  least  candor,  justice,  and  philosophic 
liberality  in  the  treatment  of  his  opponents,  might  be  con- 
fidently expected  of  Sir  Thomas  More. 

*  The  year  of  his  birth  cannot  bo  exactly  ascertained ;  but  from  the  man- 
ner in  which  both  he  and  Tyndale  refer  to  his  age  in  their  controversy,  it  is 
evident  that  he  must  have  been  considerably  the  senior,  and  that  the  state- 
ment in  the  text  is  within  bounds. 


CHAPTER    VI. 


THE    REFORMER    TRANSFORMED. 

There  are  many  examples  of  the  theoretical  reformer, 
converted  by  the  practical  experience  of  life  into  the  most 
rigid  of  conservatives.  Seldom,  indeed,  is  so  strange  a 
transformation  witnessed,  as  that  now  to  be  presented  in 
the  case  of  Sir  Thomas  More.  But  his  own  writings 
furnish  a  suflBcient  solution  of  the  problem,  and  show  that 
the  process  was  perfectly  natural,  by  which  the  advocate 
of  freedom  and  progress  became  the  champion  of  a  church 
which  repudiates  progress,  and  denies  even  the  right  to 
think;  the  opposer  of  faithful  translations  of  the  Bible, 
and  of  their  free  use  among  the  people ;  and  the  intoler- 
ant, bloody  persecutor.  The  case  is  one  full  of  instruction 
to  those  in  every  age,  who  think  to  secure  the  peace  of  so- 
ciety, and  the  permanence  of  existing  institutions,  by  shut- 
ting out  the  light  of  truth  from  the  common  mind.  It  is 
a  service  perilous  alike  to  principles  and  to  reputation. 

During  the  eleven  years  which  had  elapsed  since  the 
Utopia  saw  the  light,  great  changes  had  been  witnessed  in 
Europe,  which  threatened  in  their  onward  progress  to  sub- 
vert the  ancient  religious  institutions  of  all  Christendom. 
Before  1517,  the  name  of  Luther  had  scarcely  been  heard 


THE    REFORMER    TRANSFORMED.  185 

of  out  ofWittenberg.  Now  some  of  the  most  important 
states  of  Europe  had  renounced  their  connection  with 
Kome  and  openly  embraced  his  doctrines ;  nor  was  the 
utnjost  vigilance  of  the  still  Catholic  governments  sufficient 
to  exclude  the  influence.  Under  the  name  of  Protestant- 
ism, a  vast  religious  and  political  organization,  full  of 
youthful  energy  and  sustained  by  the  convictions  of  the 
people,  disputed  with  the  Papacy  for  the  control  of 
Christendom. 

It  cannot  be  doubted  that  Sir  Thomas  More  had  desired 
reforms  in  the  church.  He  may  even  have  regretted, 
that  the  social  and  religious  system  of  Christendom  had 
not  been  originally  constructed  on  more  equitable  princi- 
ples. He  was  willing,  we  may  believe,  that  various  faiths 
should  be  tolerated,  under  strict  subordinancy  to  the  state 
religion.  But  a  Reformation  like  that  which  he  now  saw 
sweeping  over  Europe,  and  invading  England,  was  not 
what  he  had  wished.  Like  Erasmus,  he  was  terrified  at  the 
storm  which  he  had  himself  helped  to  raise,  and  would  fain 
unsay  the  spell  and  exorcise  the  unruly  elements  into  their 
ancient  peajCe. 

To  this  was  added  another  consideration.  The  popu- 
lar agitations  which  followed  the  establishment  of  Protest- 
antism in  Germany,  were  ascribed  b}'-  Catholics,  no  doubt 
by  many  very  sincerely,  to  the  influence  of  the  new  reli- 
gion ;  which,  by  removing  the  old  restraints,  and  inculcat- 
ing freedom  of  conscience  and  freedom  of  thought  among 
all  classes,  had  implanted  in  the  lower  orders  the  spirit  of 
misrule  and  discontent,  to  end  in  tumult,  insurrection  and 
revolution. 

It  was  under  the  lively  apprehension  of  similar  results 
in  England,  that  the  cautious  statesman  entered  the  lists 


186  THE    ENGLISH    BIBLE. 

as  the  ctampion  of  the  ancient  fiiith.  He  could  not,  or 
would  not,  understand  that  Tyndale  and  his  fellow  reform- 
ers had  no  connexion  with  Luther,  and  sought  no  political 
ends.  Nor  was  this,  in  truth,  a  matter  of  much  conse- 
quence. He  saw  in  their  fundamental  principles  causes 
■which  must  woi'k  out,  substantially,  "the  same  effects,  and 
•which,  while  undermining  the  old  fabric  of  religion, 
could  not  but  endanger  the  secular  government  with  which 
it  was  so  vitally  connected.  He  fancied  England  already 
in  a  blaze  with  the  incendiary  fires  of  Lutherans,  lawless- 
ness and  riot  everywhere  in  the  ascendant,  and  all  the 
goodly  framework  of  society  which  it  had  taken  centuries 
to  build  up,  involved  in  general  ruin.  Much  in  the  exist- 
ing institutions  might  be  unjust  and  oppressive;  but  no 
settled  order  of  things  could,  in  his  view,  be  so  bad  as  a 
revolution. 

But  the  mainspring  of  his  zeal,  the  motive  which  fur- 
nished its  most  powerful  impulse,  and  dipt  his  pen  in  gall 
and  wormwood,  is  to  be  found  in  something  more  personal 
to  himself,  namel}",  in  his  own  inward  religious  history. 
The  distinguishing  doctrine  of  the  Reformation,  j?ws/^//?ca- 
tion  by  fait,  k  alone^  was  the  object  of  his  deepest  aversion. 
"WitJj  all  his  intelligence,  Sir  Thomas  More  could  not  rise 
above  the  belief,  that  the  hair  shirt  which  he  wore  next  his 
skin,  the  frequent  fastings,  vigils,  and  flagellations  with 
which  he  afflicted  his  body,  were  offerings  acceptable  to 
the  God  of  love.  The  strong  religious  tendencies,  which 
early  in  life  had  inspired  the  wish  to  become  a  monk,*  and 
the  deep  conviction  of  his  own  infirmities  which  had  led 
him  to  relinquish  it  as  a  matter  of  conscience,  had  only 
strengthened  with  years.  To  stand  well  in  the  sight  of 
♦Rudhar-i  ch.  9. 


THE    REFORMER    TRANSFORMED.  187 

God,  and,  as  the  necessary  means  thereto,  to  train  bis  sin- 
ful nature  into  entire  subjection  to  the  divine  law,  was  un- 
doubtedly the  first  object  of  his  life.  But  the  unconscious 
pride,  which  led  him  to  reject  the  unbought  rigliteousness 
of  Christ  as  the  full  expiation  for  sin,  made  him  the 
bond  slave  of  superstition.  He  clung  to  the  church  which 
promised  him  heaven  as  the  reward  of  his  deeds,  with  all 
the  tenacity  of  the  Pharisee  to  his  ancient  ritual.  The 
faith  which  took  its  starting-point  from  the  opposite  prin- 
ciple, he  hated  with  an  intensity  proportioned  to  the  vio- 
lence of  the  conflict  in  his  own  bosom.  A  more  striking 
parallel  to  the  early  history  of  Paul  can  scarcely  be  found, 
than  is  furnished  in  the  religious  career  of  this  great  man. 
Both,  striving  with  all  the  earnestness  of  high  and  power- 
ful natures,  to  win  heaven  by  fulfilling  "  every  jot  and  tittle 
of  the  law,"  became,  through  that  very  aim,  the  bitterest 
persecutors  of  those  who  brought  glad  tidings  of  grace  and 
truth  to  man.  Among  all  those  who  pursued,  to  prison  and 
to  death,  the  flock  of  Christ  in  England,  in  the  16th  cen- 
tury. Sir  Thomas  More  must  be  allowed  the  first  place  in 
cruel  and  unrelenting  intolerance;  and  the  cause  is,  in 
part  at  least,  that  in  him  as  in  Saul  of  Tarsus,  a  nobler 
character  was  perverted,  by  false  doctrine  and  party  zeal, 
into  a  tool  of  bigotry  and  despotism.  Certainly  it  would 
be  hard  to  find  a  more  lamentable  exhibition  of  their  cor- 
rupting influence,  than  this  controversy  with  Tyndale.  We 
cannot  but  believe,  many  times,  that  his  furious  exaspera- 
tion of  manner  is  due  as  much  to  the  convictions  on  which 
he  is  obliged  to  trample,  as  to  a  sincere  zeal  for  the  cause  he 
advocates;  while,  ever  and  anon,  in  the  midst  of  serious  argu- 
ment, there  gleams  out  a  reckless  mocking  spirit,  between 
profanity  and  jest,  which  makes  us  doubt  whether  he  has 


188  THE    ENGLISH    BIBLE. 

not,  in  the  process,  undermiued  his  own  confidence  in  all  reli- 
gion ;  and,  if  his  faith  has  survived,  whether  he  has  not  lost 
his  honesty.  To  such  a  height  of  absurdity  does  he  some 
times  rise,  that  it  is  impossible  not  to  feel,  that  he  is  laughing 
at  the  arguments  with  which  he  is  seeking  to  convince  the 
undiscerning  rabble.  Worse  than  all  is  the  debased  moral 
tone  of  these  writings, — the  ridiculous  tales,  indecent  jests, 
and  Billingsgate  abuse  which  deform  his  pages, — indicat- 
ing far  more  the  design  to  win  the  people  to  his  party  by 
catering  to  their  degraded  tastes,  than  to  infuse  into  them 
the  elevating  influences  of  truth  and  virtue.  "Well  did  he 
deserve  the  rebuke  of  Tyndale,  who,  in  his  reply  to  the 
"  Dyaloge,"  makes  the  single  remark  on  one  chapter  of  un- 
mitigated grossness :  "  This  chajoter  is  tcorthy  of  the  au- 
thor and  of  his  worshijful  doctrine.''''  In  noble  contrast 
stand  Tyndale's  own  writings  for  the  people ;  whose  pure, 
honest,  earnest  pages  are  suflBcient  witness  that  their  author 
sought  to  gain  his  readers  for  no  party,  but  to  restore  the 
reign  of  God,  the  dominion  of  holiness  and  of  the  love  of 
Christ  in  their  hearts. 

License  to  read  the  books  of  Tyndale,  for  the  purpose 
of  refuting  them,  was  granted  to  Sir  Thomas  More  by  the 
Bishop  of  London,*  in  March,  1528;  but  the  first  division 
of  his  work  did  not  appear  till  the  summer  of  the  follow- 
ing year,  though  he  had,  as  he  informs  the  reader,  labored 
at  it  "  night  and  day."  It  was  a  folio  of  two  hundred 
and  fifty  pages,  the  title  of  which  was  set  forth,  with  all 
due  pomp  and  circumstance,  as  follows :  "  A  Dyaloge  of 
Syr  Thomas  More,  Knyghte  :   One  of  the  Counsaill  of  our 

*  What  a  picture  of  the  mental  bondage  in  which  England  was  then  held, 
is  disclosed  by  this  single  fact.  A  man  like  Sir  Thomas  More,  obliged  to 
ask  leave  of  the  bishop  to  read  the  works  of  Tyndale  ! 


THE    REFORMER    TRANSFORMED.  189 

Sovereign  Lord  the  Kinge,  and  Chancellourc  of  his  Duchy 
of  Lancaster.  Wherein  be  treated  divers  matters,  as  of 
the  veneracyon  and  worship  of  images  and  reliques,  pray- 
ing to  sayntes  and  goyinge  on  pilgrimage.  Wyth  many 
other  thynges  touching  the  pestylente  secte  of  Luther  and 
Tyndale,  by  the  tone,  begun  in  Saxony,  and  by  the  tother 
labored  to  be  brought  into  England.  '  The  controversy 
extended  through  the  years  1529-1533.  Sir  Thomas 
More's  part  filled  several  folio  volumes.  A  considerable 
portion  of  it  appeared  under  the  imposing  name  of  the 
"  Chancelloure  ^of  England;"  to  the  remainder  he  dedi- 
cated the  year  which  followed  his  resignation  of  the  Great 
Seal.  Besides  the  works  directed  against  Tyndale-  by 
name,  the  "  Supplication  of  Soules,"  in  reply  to  Fyshe's 
Supplication  of  Beggairs ;  the  "  Confutation  of  frere 
Barnes  Church  ;"  the  answer  to  Fry  the  on  the  "  Sacrament 
of  the  Altar;"  and  others  which  likewise  came  from  his 
busy  pen  during  this  period,  belong  to  the  same  general 
subject,  and  together,  form  a  very  complete  view  of  the 
doctrines  and  policy  of  the  Romish  church,  by  one  of  its 
ablest  defenders. 

These  English  writings,  it  should  be  borne  in  mind, 
were  for  the  people,  and  were  intended  to  counteract  those 
of  Tyndale  and  his  fellow-reformers.  What  then  was  the 
process  by  which  the  end  was  sought;  and  what,  if  suc- 
cessful, must  have  been  the  influence  on  the  condition  and 
prospects  of  the  English  people  ? 

The  fundamental  principle  of  the  new  advocate,  with 
which  his  whole  theory  stood  or  fell,  was  the  infallibility 
of  the  church  of  Rome — The  most  holy  Catholic  church 
CANNOT  ERR.  How  is  this  provcd  ?  Primarily,  by  Scrip- 
ture,  which,  in  this  point,  is  supreme  and  absolute  author- 


190  THE    ENGLISH    BIBLE. 

ity.     Christ  promised  Peter,  that  his  faith  should  not  fail. 
But  Peter's  faith  did  fail ;   therefore,  this  must  have  been 
addressed   to  him,  not  as  an  individual,  but  as  the  repre- 
sentative Head  of  the  church  ;   since  otherwise,   Christ  is 
made  untrue   to  his  word.     Likewise  to  all  his  Apostles, 
as  the  representatives  of  the  church,  he  promised  that  the 
Holy  Ghost  should  be  with  them  and  in  them  ;  "  the  Com- 
forter shall  teach  you  all  things;"  "he  that  heareth  you, 
heareth  me,  and  he  that  despiseth  jou,  despiseth  me ;  and 
lo  !  I  am  with  you  alway,  even  to  the  end  of  the  world  !" 
And   Paul  also   directed,  that  if  any  would  not  hear  the 
church,  he  should  be  accounted  a  heathen  man  and  a  pub- 
lican.— But  what  church  is  this,  and  how  is  it  to  be  known? 
"  It  is,"  says  More  "  the  common  known  body  of  all  Chris- 
tian-realms remaining  in  the  faith  of  Christ,  not  fallen  off, 
nor  cut  off  with  heresies."     "  The  very  church  of  Christ 
here  in  earth,  which  hath  the  right  faith,  and  which  we  be 
bounden  to  believe  and  obey,  is  this  universal  known  peo- 
ple of  all   Christian  nations,  that  be  neither  put  out,  nor 
openly  departed  out,  by  their  willful  schisms  and  plainly 
professed  heresies."     "  The  Catholic  church  is  God's  per- 
petual  apostle,  however  nations  soever  fall   therefrom,  and 
how  little  and  small  soever  it  be  left."     "  I  said,  and  yet 
say,  that   these  words  of  our  Saviour  Christ,  'Whoso  so 
heareth  you,  heareth  me,' were  no  more  proper  commandment 
to  bind  any  man  to  believe  the  apostles,  than  to  believe  the 
whole  Catholic  church,  and  general  councils  that  represent 
that  whole  body  of  the  Catholic  church,  and  that  they  were 
not  spoken  to  the  apostles  only, no  more  than  the  Holy  Ghost 
was  promised  to  be  sent  to  the  apostles  only."* — That  this  is 
the  apostolic,  and  therefore  infallible  church,  is  proved  by 

*  Confutation,  p.  504. 


THE    REFORMER    TRANSFORMED.  191 

miracles  which  God  has  wrought  through  her,  from  the  time 
of  Christ  down  to  the  present.  "  And  this  is,  tlierefore,  the 
way  that  God  hath  taken  from  the  beginning;  that  is  to 
wit,  he  hath  joined  his  word  with  wonderful  works,  to 
make  his  word  perceived  for  his  own.  Thus  did  he,  in 
every  age  before  the  coming  of  Christ.  Thus  did  he  in 
Christ  himself  whose  words  he  proved  by  his  wonderful 
work^.  .  .  .  Thus  did  he  also  by  his  blessed  apostles,  whose 
doctrines  he  confirmed  by  miracles.  And  thus  hath  he 
done  ever  since."*  "  And  now,  in  such  things  as  God 
seeth  most  need,  and  the  hereticks  most  busy  to  assault, 
there  doth  he  most  specially  fence  in  his  church  with  mira- 
cles  He  hath  wrought,  and  daily  doth  many  wonder- 
ful miracles,  and  the  like  of  those  that  he  wrought  in  the 
time  of  his  apostles,  to  shew  and  make  proof  that  -his 
Catholic  church  is  his  perpetual  apostle,  how  many  nations 

soever  fall  therefrom,  and  how  small  soever  it  be  left."t 

"  Our  Saviour  saith  that  his  own  miracles  passed  all  that 
bad  been  before,  and  that  yet  his  apostles  and  disciples 
and  faithful-believing  folk  should  do  as  great  and  greater. 
And  we  see  in  the  Catholic  church,  God  hath  done,  and 
daily  doth  for  his  saints  ...  as  great  miracles  in  confirma- 
tion of  our  faith  in  that  behalf,  as  ever  he  did  in  the  time 
of  the  apostles.  The  false  churches  of  heretics  do  no 
miracle.  .  .  .  But  God  worketh  his  miracles  in  his  true 
church,  to  shew  his  true  church,  that  is  to  wit,  his  true 
apostle."!— The  genuineness  of  these  modern  miracles,  on 
which  so  much  is  made  to  depend,  is  argued  through  seve- 
ral chapters  of  the  Dialogue,  in  a  manner  which,  for  the 
credit  of  the  distinguished  author's  sincerity,  we  trust  was 
more  satisfactory  to  him  than  it  is  to  his  readers  at  the 
•  Confutation  of  Tyndale,  p.  504.         -f  Confutaticn,  p.  449.         J  Ibid 


192  THE    ENGLISH    BIBLE. 

present  day.  The  instances  which  he  adduces,  make  a 
heavy  draught  on  our  faith  in  his  honesty.  One  of  these, 
to  which  he  professes  to  have  been  an  eye-witness,  must 
suffice  as  a  specimen  : 

"  And  myself  saw,  at  the  Abbey  of  Barking,  beside  Lon- 
don, to  my  remembrance  about  thirty  years  past,  in  the 
setting  an  old  image  in  a  new  tabernacle,  the  back  of  which 
image  being  painted  over,  and  of  long  time  before  laid 
with  beaten  gold,  happened  to  crack  in  one  place,  and  out 
there  fell  a  pretty  little  door,  at  which  fell  out,  also,  many 
relics,  that  had  lien  unknown  in  that  image  God  wot  how 
long.  And  as  long  bad  been  likely  to  be  again,  if  God 
by  that  chance  had  not  brought  them  to  light.  The 
Bishop  of  London  then  came  thither  to  see  there  were  no 
deceit  therein.  And  I,  among  others,  was  present  there 
while  he  looked  thereon  and  examined  the  matter.  And 
in  good  faith,  it  was  a  marvel  to  me  to  behold  the  manner 
of  it.  I  have  forgotten  much  thereof,  but  I  remember  a 
little  piece  of  wood  there  was,  rudely  shaped  in  cross,  with 
thread  wrapped  about  it.  Writing  had  it  none,  and  what 
it  was  we  could  not  tell ;  but  it  seemed  as  neioly  cut  as  if 
it  had  been  done  ivithin  one  day  before!  And  divers  relics 
had  old  writings  on  them,  and  some  had  none.  But  among 
other,  were  certain  small  kerchiefs  which  were  named  there 
Our  Lady's,  and  of  her  own  working.  Coarse  were  they 
not,  nor  were  they  not  large,  but  served  as  it  seemed,  to 
cast  in  a  plain  and  simple  manner  on  her  head.  But  sure- 
ly they  were  as  clean  seams  to  my  seeming  as  ever  I  saw 
in  my  life,  and  were  therewith  as  white,  for  all  the  long 
lying,  as  if  they  had  been  xvashed  and  laid  ujo  ivithin  one 
hour !  And  how  long  that  image  had  stood  in  that  old 
tabernacle,  that  could  no  man  tell;  but  there  had,  in  all 


THE    REFORMER    TRANSFORMED.  193 

the  ehurcli,  none  as  they  thought  stood  longer  untouched. 
And  they  guessed,  that  four  or  five  hundred  years  ago,  the 
ima<Te  was  hidden  when  the  abbey  was  burned  by  infidels, 
and  those  relics  hidden  therein  ;  afterward,  the  image  was 
found  and  set  up  many  years  after,  when  they  were  gone 
that  hid  it.  And  so  the  relics  remained  unknown  therein, 
till  now  that  God  gave  that  chanca  that  opened  it."* 

That  this  is  the  true  church,  is  attested  also  by  tho 
common  consent  of  the  "  old  holy  doctors,"  who,  having 
proved  their  saintship  by  indubitable  miracles,  testify  ia 
their  writings  that  this  is  the  very  true  church.  "  The 
miracles  and  consent  of  these  holy  doctors,  do  prove  that 
this  must  needs  be  the  very  true  church  in  which  they  have 
written,  and  their  miracles  have  been  done." 

The  essential  point  being  satisfactorily  established — that 
the  Catholic  church  is  the  true  church,  which  being  con- 
tinually pervaded  by  the  fullness  of  divine  influence,  cannot 
err — the  way  is  prepared  for  exalting  her  teachings  above 
those  of  the  written  Word.  Provision  is  thus  made  for 
all  those  doctrines  and  usages  in  the  church,  which  are  not 
commanded  by  Scripture ;  or  are,  by  all  ordinary  rules 
of  interpretation,  even  in  direct  contrariety  to  it.  By  es- 
tablishing the  authority  of  the  church,  it  has  made  itself 
superfluous.  The  unwritten  word — that  is,  the  traditions 
taught  by  the  apostles,  and  handed  down  from  age  to  age, 
and  the  new  teachings  of  the  church  itself  in  successive 
periods,  through  her  general  councils — are  of  equal  autho- 
rity with  the  written  word.  Several  of  these  he  enumer- 
ates, in  a  passage  of  the  "  Confutation,"  as  follows  : 

"  By  these  traditions  have  we  the  praying  to  saints,  and 
the  knowledge  that  they  pray  for  us.     By  these  traditions 

*  Dyalogue,  p.  192. 
9 


194  THE    ENGLISH    BIBLE. 

have  we  the  holy  Lenten  fast. .  .  .  By  these  have  we  also 
the  Saturday  changed  into  Sunday.  .  .  .  By  these  have  we 
the  hallowing  of  chalices,  vestments,  paschal  taper,  and 
holy  water,  with  divers  other  things.  By  these  traditions 
of  that  Holy  Spirit,  hath  the  church  also  the  knowledge 
how  to  consecrate,  how  to  say  mass,  and  what  thing  to 
pray  for  and  to  desire  therein.  By  this  have  we  also  the 
knowledge  to  do  reverence  to  the  images  of  holy  saints, 
and  of  our  Saviour,  and  to  creep  to  his  cross,  and  to  do 
divine  honor  unto  the  blessed  sacrament  of  the  altar." 
And  these  are  things  not  merely  true  in  themselves ;  the 
belief  of  them  is  necessary  to  salvation.  For  if  the  church, 
in  teaching  the  worship  of  saints,  of  images,  relics,  and  the 
host,  teaches  what  is  false,  she  teaches  damnable  idolatry  ; 
to  disbelieve  it,  therefore,  if  true,  is  damnable  error  and 
heresy.  To  judge  from  the  earnestness  with  which  he 
contends  for  these  "  unwritten  verities,"  they  were  of  far 
more  moment  in  his  eyes  than  those  revealed  in  Scripture. 
Such  frantic  zeal  in  defence  of  the  worship  of  saints  and 
relics,  can  hardly  be  accounted  for  in  such  a  man,  except 
on  the  supposition  that  he  saw  in  these  the  stronghold  of 
the  church  with  the  populace.  So  anxious  was  he  to  pre- 
sent the  holy  fabric  without  a  flaw  to  the  common  eye,  as 
to  defend  the  superstition  of  praying  to  St.  Loy  for  sick 
horses,  and  St.  Appoline  in  the  toothache,  and  St.  Sythe 
for  lost  keys;  and  of  the  offering  by  discontented  wives  of 
a  peck  of  oats  to  St.  Wilgefort,  to  rid  them  of  their  hus- 
bands— Whence,  called  by  them  St.  Uneumber.  He  gravely 
accounts  also  for  the  fact,  that  the  head  of  John  the  Bap- 
tist is  enshrined  in  more  than  one  place,  and  in  general, 
that  the  bones  of  the  saints  are  so  singularly  multiplied  in 
Christendom ;  and  proves,  that  under  the  inspired  guar- 


THE    REFORMER    TRANSFORMED.  195 

dianship  of  the  church,  there  can  be  no  serious  mistake 
Nay,  so  meritorious  and  so  necessary  is  the  reverence  of 
relics,  that  if,  by  chance,  a  pig's  bones  were  worshiped  as 
those  of  a  saint,  the  service  would  be  far  more  acceptable 
to  God,  than  the  profane  rejection  of  the  whole  doctrine 
by  heretics.* 

But  how,  if  these  teachings  seem  to  contradict  the  plain 
language  of  the  Scriptures  ?  The  remedy  is  easy.  The 
church  which  cannot  err,  is  the  constituted  expounder  of 
the  written  word.  "She  has  the  assistance  of  God  and  the 
Holy  Ghost.  For  else  might  the  church  be  most  easily 
beguiled  in  the  very  receiving  of  Scripture,  wherein  they 
take  outwardly  but  the  testimony  of  men  from  mouth  to 
mouth,  and  hand  to  hand,  without  other  examination. 
But  that  secret  means  that  inclineth  their  credulity  to  con- 
sent in  the  believing  all  in  one  point,  ivhich  is  the  secret 
instinct  of  God^  this  is  the  sure  mean  that  never  can,  in 
any  necessary  point,  fail  in  Christ's  church."  "  Worst  of 
all  wretches  shall  he  walk,  who  cometh  to  the  Scripture 
of  God,  to  try  whether  the  church  believe  right  or  not. 
For  either  doubteth  he  whether  Christ  teach  his  church 
true,  or  whether  Christ  teacheth  it  at  all  or  not.  And 
then  he  doubteth  whether  Christ,  in  his  words,  said  true, 
when  he  said  he  would  be  with  his  church  to  the  end  of 
the  world." 

He  particularly  cautions  theological  students  against 
the  dangerous  practice,  to  which  so  many  of  them  were 
then  inclined,  of  "  giving  themselves  to  the  study  of  Scrip- 
ture alone,  with  contempt  of  logic  and  other  secular  sciences, 
and  little  regard  to  the  old  interpreters;"  and  tells  a  sad 
story  of  some  who  had  thus  come  to  a  very  bad  end.     "  For 

*  Dialogue,  2d  Book. 


196  THE    ENGLISH    BIBLE. 

the  sure  avoiding  whereof,"  he  continues,  "  my  poor  advice 
were,  in  the  study  thereof,  to  have  a  special  regard  to  the 
writings  and  comments  of  the  old  holy  fathers.  And  yet, 
or  he  fall  in  hand  with  the  one  or  the  other,  next  to 
grace  and  help  of  God  to  be  got  with  abstinence  and 
prayer  and  clean  living,  afore  all  things  were  it  necessary 
to  come  well  and  surely  instructed  in  all  such  points  and 
articles  as  the  church  believeth."  "  Finally,  if  all  he  can 
find  in  other  men's  works,  or  invent  by  God's  aid  of  his 
own  study,  cannot  suffice  to  satisfy,  but  that  any  text  yet 
seem  contrary  to  any  point  of  the  church's  faith  and  be- 
lief, let  him  then,  as  St.  Augustine  saith,  make  himself 
very  sure  that  there  is  some  fault,  either  in  the  translator 
or  in  the  writer,  [copyist,]  or  now-a-days  in  the  printer ; 
or  finally,  that  for  some  let  or  other,  he  understandeth  it 
not  aright.  And  so  let  him  reverently  knowledge  his  ig- 
norance, lean  and  cleave  to  the  faith  of  the  church  as  an 
undoubted  truth,  leaving  that  text  to  be  better  perceived, 
when  it  shall  please  our  Lord,  with  his  light,  to  reveal  and 
disclose  it." 


CHAPTER    VII. 


SHALL  THE  PEOPLE  HAVE  THE  BIBLE  ? 

But  the  central  point  of  interest  in  this  controversy,  was 
the  subject  of  vernacular  translations  of  the  Bible.  Of 
these  the  Lord  Chancellor  professed  himself  a  warm  advo- 
cate. Nothing,  in  his  view,  could  so  conduce  to  the  growth 
of  piety  and  good  morals  among  the  people,  as  the  Holy 
Scriptures  faithfully  translated  into  their  mother  tongue. 
To  argue  against  this  was  to  reflect  on  "  the  holy  writers 
that  wrote  the  Scripture  in  the  Hebrew  tongue,  and 
against  the  blessed  evangelists  that  wrote  the  Scripture  in 
Greek,  and  against  all  those  in  likewise  that  translated  it 
out  of  every  of  those  tongues  into  Latin  ;  "  for  these  were 
all  written  in  what  was,  at  the  time,  the  vulgar  tongue. 
To  deny  it  to  the  unlearned  in  English,  required  also  that 
it  should  be  denied  in  the  Latin  to  the  laity  and  to  the 
great  body  of  the  priesthood  also,  who  were  as  incompe- 
tent to  understand  "  hard  and  doubtful  texts  "  in  the  vul- 
gate,  as  the  very  women  to  do  so  in  their  own  language. 
Nor  did  the  objection  that  many  would  abuse  the  privi- 
lege to  their  own  destruction,  seem  to  him  a  suiBcient  rea- 
son for  withholding  it  from  alL  "  If  any  good  thing  will 
go  forward,  somewhat,"  he  says,  "  must  be  adventured." 


198  THE    ENGLISH    BIBLE. 

"  To  keep  the  whole  commodity  from  any  whole  people,  be- 
cause of  harm  that  by  their  own  folly  and  fault  may  come 
to  some  part,  were  as  though  a  lewd  surgeon  would  cut  off 
the  leg  by  the  knee,  to  keep  the  toe  from  the  gout,  or  cut 
off  a  man's  head  by  the  shoulders  to  keep  him  from  the 
toothache."  "  I  would  not,  for  my  mind,  withhold  the 
profit  that  any  one  good,  devout,  unlearned,  lay  man  might 
take  by  the  reading,  not  for  the  harm  that  an  hundred  her- 
etics would  fall  in  by  their  own  wilful  abusion."* 

In  regard  to  the  principle  of  the  things  it  appears,  there- 
fore, that  Sir  Thomas  was  entirely  one  with  the  Reformers. 
He  could  illustrate  it  as  forcibly,  and  plead  for  it  as  ear- 
nestly, as  the  most  zealous  of  them  ail.  The  only  differ- 
ence between  them,  was  on  the  practical  application  of  the 
principle  in  which  he  and  they  alike  were  agreed. 

When  we  come  to  the  practical  application,  however, 
this  difference  is  found  to  be  a  somewhat  serious  matter,  in- 
volving no  less  than  the  whole  question  :  "  Shall  the  peo- 
ple HAVE  the  Bible  ?" 

In  the  first  place,  though  Sir  Thomas  More  was  fully  in 
favor  of  the  Bible  for  the  people,  it  was  not  as  a  matter  of 
necessity,  nor  as  their  right.  Nor  did  he  plead  for  the 
■whole  Bible  to  be  given  to  the  whole  people.  Who  should 
receive  it,  and  how  much,  was  at  the  discretion  of  their 
spiritual  guides.  He  proposes  the  following  plan  for  obvi- 
ating the  mischief  apprehended  by  many  learned  and  pious 
prelates,  from  the  Scriptures  in  the  mother  tongue.  "  Let 
a  translation  be  made  by  some  good  Catholic  and  well- 
learned  man,  or  by  divers  dividing  the  labor  among  them, 
and  the  work  then  allowed  and  approved  by  the  ordinaries, 
and  by  their  authority  put  to  print,  all  the  copies  then  to 
*  Dialogue,  3d  Book. 


SHALL    THE    PEOPLE     HAVE    THE    BIBLE?  199 

come  whole  into  the  bisliop's  hands,  which  he  may,  after 
his  discretion  and  wisdom,  deliver  to  such  as  he  perceivcth 
honest,  sad,  and  virtuous,  with  a  good  monition  and  fath- 
erly counsel  to  use  it  reverently,  with  humble  heart  and 
lowly  mind,  rather  seeking  therein  occasion  of  devotion 
than  despicion.  And  providing  as  much  as  may  be  that 
the  book  be,  after  the  decease  of  the  party,  brought  again 
and  reverently  restored  unto  the  ordinary.  So  that,  as 
near  as  may  be  devised,  no  man  have  it  but  of  the  ordina- 
ries' hands,  and  by  him  thought  and  reputed  for  such  as 
shall  be  likely  to  use  it  for  God's  glory  and  the  merit  of 
his  own  soul.  Among  whom,  if  any  be  proved  after  to 
have  abused  it,  the  use  thereof  to  be  forbidden  him  either 
forever,  or  till  he  wax  wiser."  "  Though  it  were  not  taken 
to  every  lewd  lad  in  his  own  hands,  to  read  a  little  rudely 
when  he  list,  and  then  cast  the  book  at  his  heels,  or  among 
other  such  as  himself  to  keep  a  quodlibet  or  a  pot  parlia- 
ment upon,  I  trow  there  will  no  wise  man  find  a  fault  there- 
in." "  Though  it  may,  therefore,  [on  account  of  the  pres- 
ence of  the  Holy  Spirit  in  the  church]  be  the  better  suf- 
fered that  no  part  of  Scripture  were  kept  out  of  honest  lay- 
men's hands,  yet  would  I  that  no  part  thereof  should  come 
into  theirs,  which,  to  their  own  harm,  and  haply  their 
neighbor's  too,  would  handle  it  over  homely,  and  be  too 
bold  and  busy  therewith.  And  although  Holy  Scripture 
be  a  medicine  for  the  sick  and  food  for  him  that  is  whole ; 
yet,  since  there  is  many  a  body  sore  and  soul-sick  that 
taketh  himself  for  whole,  and  in  Holy  Scripture  is  a  whole 
feast  of  so  much  divers  viand,  that  after  the  affection  and 
state  of  sundry  stomachs,  one  may  take  harm  by  that  self 
same  that  shall  do  another  good,  and  sick  folk  often  have 
such  a  corrupt  tallage  in  their  taste  that  they  most  like 


200  THE    ENGLISH    BIBLE. 

the  jneat  that  is  most  unwholesome  for  them,  it  were  not, 
therefore,  as  me  thinketh,  unreasonable  that  the  ordinary, 
whom  God  hath,  in  the  dioceses,  appointed  for  the  chief 
physician  to  discern  between  the  whole  and  the  sick,  and 
between  disease  and  disease,  should  after  his  wisdom  and 
discretion,  appoint  everybody  their  part  as  he  should  per- 
ceive to  be  good  and  wholesome  for  them.  And,  therefore, 
as  he  should  not  fail  to  find  many  a  man  to  whom  he 
might  commit  all  the  whole ;  so,  to  say  the  truth,  I  caa 
see  no  harm  therein,  though  he  should  commit  unto  some 
men  the  Gospel  of  Matthew,  Mark,  or  Luke,  whom  he 
should  yet  forbid  the  Gospel  of  John ;  and  suffer  some  to 
read  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles  whom  he  would  not  suffer  to 
meddle  with  the  Apocalypse.  Many  were  there,  I  think, 
should  take  much  profit  by  St.  Paul's  Epistle  ad  Ejyhe- 
sios,  and  yet  should  find  little  fruit  for  their  understanding 
in  the  Epistle  ad  Roinanos.  And  in  likewise  would  it 
be  in  divers  other  parts  of  the  Bible  as  well  in  the  Old 
Testament  as  in  the  New ;  so  that  I  say,  though  the  bishop 
might,  unto  some  lay  men,  betake  and  commit,  with  good 
advice  and  instruction,  the  whole  Bible  to  read  ;  yet  might 
he  to  some  man  well  and  with  reason  restrain  the  reading  of 
some  part,  and  from  some  busy-body,  the  meddling  with  any 
part  at  all,  more  than  he  shall  hear  in  sermons  set  out  and 
declared  unto  him  ;  and  in  likewise  to  take  away  the  Bible 
from  such  folk  again  as  be  proved  by  their  blind  presump- 
tion to  abuse  the  occasion  of  their  profit  unto  their  own 
hurt  and  harm." 

At  tne  conclusion  he  modestly  suggests,  with  all  defer- 
ence to  more  wise  and  learned  judges,  that  he  would  not 
himself  fear  to  try  the  experiment  of  permittiug  the  Scrip- 
ture? to  go  freely  among  the  people.     But  as  the  contro- 


SHALL  THE  PEOPLE  HAVE  THE  BIBLE?      201 

versy  progressed,  not  so  much  to  his  own  credit  as  had  been 
anticipated,  he  seems  to  have  grown  much  more  dubious 
on  this  point.  In  the  "  Confutation,"  written  two  or  three 
years  later,  1532,  he  argues  agaiust  having  the  church  ser- 
vice in  English,  "  which,"  he  says,  "  what  it  would  do  here 
God  knoweth  !  But  as  for  Allmain  (Germany),  there  as  it 
is  so  already,  we  see  well  enough  that  it  doeth  no  great 
good  there."  In  the  "  Apology,"  written  in  1533,  he 
seems  quite  weaned  from  the  plan  which  had  once  been  so 
near  his  heart.  "  The  people,"  he  asserts,  "  may  have 
every  necessary  truth  of  Scripture,  and  everything  neces- 
sary for  them  to  know  concerning  the  salvation  of  their 
souls,  truly  taught  and  preached  unto  them ;  though  the 
corps  and  body  of  the  Scripture  be  not  translated  unto  them 
in  their  mother  tongue.  For  else  had  it  been  wrong  with 
English  people,  from  the  faith  first  brought  into  this  realm 
unto  our  own  day,  in  all  which  time  before,  I  am  sure  that 
every  English  man  and  woman  that  could  read  it,  had  not 
a  book  by  them  of  the  Scripture  in  English.  And  yet  is 
there,  I  doubt  not,  of  those  folk  many  a  good  soul  saved. 
And  secondly  also,  if  the  having  of  the  Scripture  in  Eng- 
lish be  a  thing  so  requisite,  of  precise  necessity,  that  the 
people's  souls  should  needs  perish  but  if  they  have  it  trans- 
lated into  their  own  tongue ;  then  must  the  most  part  per- 
ish for  all  that,  except  the  preacher  make  farther  provision 
beside,  that  all  the  people  shall  be  able  to  read  it  when  they 
have  it,  of  which  people  far  more  than  four  parts  of  all  the 
whole  divided  into  ten  could  never  read  English  yet,  and 
many  now  too  old  to  begin  to  go  to  school,  and  shall,  with 
God's  grace,  though  they  read  never  word  of  Scripture, 

come  to  heaven  as  well Many  have  thought  it  a 

thing  very  good  and  profitable  that  the  Scripture,  well  and 


202  THE    ENGLISH    BIBLE. 

truly  translated,  should  be  in  the  English  tongue.  And 
albeit  that  many  right  wise  and  well  learned  both,  and 
very  virtuous  folk  also,  both  have  been  and  yet  are  in  a  far 
other  mind  ;  yet  for  mine  own  part,  I  both  have  been,  and 
yet  am  also  of  the  same  opinion  still,  as  I  have  in  my  Di- 
alogue declared,  if  the  men  were  amended  and  the  time 
meet  therefor  ! " 

In  the  second  place,  there  seemed  to  be  insuperable  diffi- 
culties in  the  way  of  obtaining  such  a  translation,  as  might 
safely  be  trusted  in  the  people's  hands.  There  was  a  tra- 
dition of  an  ancient  orthodox  version  made  before  Wick- 
liiFe's;*  but  where  to  find  it,  or  how  to  distinguish  it  from 

*  In  reference  to  this  alleged  version,  Tyndale  replies :  "  What  may 
not  Mr.  More  say  by  authority  of  his  poetry  1  There  is  a  lawful  translation 
that  no  man  knoweth,  which  is  as  much  as  no  lawful  translation  !  Why 
might  not  the  bishops  show  which  were  that  lawful  translation,  and  let  it  bo 
printed  7  Nay,  if  that  might  bare  been  obtained  of  them  with  large  money,  it 
had  been  printed,  ye  may  be  sure,  long  ere  this.  But,  Sir,  answer  me 
hereunto  ;  how  happeneth  that  ye  defenders  translate  not  one  yourselves  to 
cease  the  murmur  of  the  people,  and  put  to  your  own  glosses,  to  prevent 
heretics  7  1  ou  would  no  doubt  have  done  it,  long  since,  if  ye  could  have 
made  your  glosses  agree  with  the  text  in  everyplace."  He  adds  a  serious 
charge  against  Sir  Thomas  More's  sincerity.  "  And  what  can  you  say  to 
this,  how  that  besides  they  have  done  their  best  to  disannul  all  translating 
by  parliament,  they  have  disputed  before  the  king's  grace  that  it  is  perilous 
and  not  meet,  and  so  concluded  that  it  shall  not  be,  under  a  pretence  of  de- 
ferring it  for  certain  years ;  where  Mr.  More  was  their  special  orator,  to 
feign  lies  for  their  purpose."  Ans.  to  Sir  Thomas  More's  Dialogue,  Vol. 
II,  p.  175.  This  is,  without  doubt,  the  interview  mentioned  by  More  him- 
self (Confutation,  p.  422) :  "  The  king's  highness,  and  not  with  out  the  coun- 
cil and  advice,  not  of  his  nobles  only  with  other  counsellors  attending 
on  his  grace's  person,  [most  of  them  ecclesiastics,]  but  also  of  right  virtuous 
and  special  right  well  learned  men  of  either  university,  and  other  parties  of 
the  realm  specially  called  thereunto,  hath,  after  diligent  and  long  consideration 
had  therein,  been  fnm,for  the  xchile,  to  prohibit  the  Scripture  of  God  to  be 
Buffered  in  English  tongue  among  the  people's  hands." 


SHALL     THE    TEOPLE    HAVE    THE    BIULE  ?  203 

tliat  seditious  and  prohibited  translation,  no  man  could 
tell.  When  moreover,  the  pious  Chancellor  reflects,  that 
all  through  these  two  hundred  years,  during  which  tho 
holy  Catholic  church  has  possessed  so  many  learned  and 
virtuous  doctors,  not  one  of  them  has  been  moved  by  tho 
Holy  Spirit  tb  undertake  this  work,  he  begins  to  be  in  doubt 
whether  the  wishes  he  has  indulged  are  in  harmony  with 
the  will  of  God.  Heretics,  alone,  seemed  to  have  their 
minds  inclined  to  Bible  translation.  A  New  Testament, 
translated  out  of  tiie  original  Greek  into  clear  and  vigor- 
ous English,  had  already  appeared,  and  had  commended 
itself  widely  to  tlie  popular  mind.  It  was  the  first  effort 
of  the  kind  by  an  English  scholar ;  and,  as  a  literary  work, 
might  well  have  been  an  object  of  pride  to  English  schol- 
ars. But,  as  the  work  of  a  heretic,  it  must  be  prohibited ; 
and  wherever  found,  burned  to  ashes  by  the  faithful  guar- 
dians of  the  flock.  Better  far  that  the  people  should  never 
have  a  Bible,  than  receive  it  from  this  poisoned  source  ! 

But,  unfortunately,  the  notion  had  gone  abroad  among 
the  people,  that  these  measures  were  attributable  rather  to 
personal  and  selfish  considerations,  than  to  any  concern  for 
their  welfare. 

"The  visible  contrariety  between  that  book  and  the 
doctrines  of  those  who  handled  it,"  was  the  popular  solu- 
tion of  their  zeal  for  its  suppression ;  an  opinion  which 
did  not  tend  to  lessen  their  eagerness  to  read  it,  or  their 
prejudices  against  the  clergy.  To  counteract  this  impres- 
sion, and  to  persuade  the  people  to  wait  patiently  till  Pro- 
vidence should  send  them  a  Bible,  prepared  by  the  right 
men  on  the  right  principles,  More  put  forth  all  the  power 
of  his  pen. 


204  THE    ENGLISH    BIBLE. 

He  begins*  with  expressing  his  surprise,  "  that  any 
good  Christian  man  having  any  drop  of  wit  in  his  head," 
should  complain  of  the  burning  of  Tyndale's  New  Testa- 
ment. Even  to  call  it  the  New  Testament  is  a  misnomer; 
since,  as  he  affirms,  "  Tyndale  had,  after  Luther's  counsel, 
so  corrupted  and  changed  it  from  the  good  and  wholesome 
doctrine  of  Christ,  to  the  devilish  heresies  of  their  own, 
that  it  was  clean  a  contrary  thing."  "  To  tell  all  its  faults,, 
were  in  a  manner  to  rehearse  all  the  whole  book,  wherein 
there  were  found  and  noted  wrong  above  a  thousand  texts 
by  tale.  To  study  to  find  one,  were  to  study  where  to 
find  water  in  the  sea." 

But  when  he  condescends  to  specify  some  of  these  al- 
leo-ed  errors,  we  see  that  the  real  gist  of  the  difficulty  lies 
within  a  nutshell.  It  was  Tyndale's  principles  of  transla- 
tion^ as  applied  to  certain  ecclesiastical  terms  of  the  Ro- 
97iish  church,  which  formed  the  true  ground  of  his  condem- 
nation with  the  Lord  Chancellor.  Out  of  the  multitude 
of  mistranslations,  he  proposes  to  mention  "  two  or  three, 
such  as  every  one  of  the  three  is  more  than  thrice  three  in 
one."  "The  one  is  this  word,  Priests;  the  other,  the 
Church;  the  third.  Charity''''  —  translated  by  Tyndale, 
soiiors,  (afterwards  changed  to  elders,)  congregation,  love. 
To  these  he  afterwards  adds  several  others — ^^  favor  for 
grace  ;  repentance  for  penance  ;  knoivledging]  for  confess- 
i7ig.  This  may,  at  first,  seem  mere  peevish  caviling  on  the 
part  of  More ;  as  Coverdale  said,  "  like  a  quarrel  as  to  the 
difference  between  fourpence  and  a  groat."  But  this  is  a 
mistaken  view.     These  terms  were  the  very  pillars  of  the 

*  Dialogue,  3d  Book,  8th  Chap. 

t  This  word,  as  appears  from  many  passages  in  Mere's  own  writings,  had 
the  full  force  of  our  present  form,  ackiiowledgin^. 


SHALL    THE    PEOPLE    HAVE    THE    BIBLE  ?  205 

liierarcliical  system.  In  excluding  them  from  his  transla- 
tion, Tyndale  had  effaced  from  the  English  New  Testa- 
ment every  thing  to  which  the  Romish  clergy  could  ap- 
peal, in  proof  of  those  prerogatives  by  which  they  had  so 
long  lorded  it  over  the  minds  and  consciences  of  the  laity. 
The  controversy  between  More  and  Tyndale,  on  these 
points,  shows  clearly  that  they  both  considered  them 
vital  questions.  The  Lord  Chancellor  accuses  his  oppo- 
nent, over  and  over,  of  "  going  about  by  this  means  to 
make  a  change  in  the  faith?''  "  Because,"  says  he,*  "  that 
Luther  utterly  denieth  the  very  Catholic  church  in  earth, 
and  saith  that  the  church  of  Christ  is  but  an  unknown 
congregation  of  some  folk,  here  two  and  there  three,  no 
man  wot  where,  having  the  right  faith,  which  he  calleth 
only  his  own  new  forged  faith ;  therefore  Huchyns  [Tyn- 
dale] in  the  New  Testament,  cannot  abide  the  name  of  the 
church,  but  turncth  it  into  the  name  of  congregation;  will- 
ing that  it  should  seem  to  Englishmen,  either  that  Christy 
in  the  Gospel,  had  never  spoken  of  the  church,  or  else 
that  the  church  were  but  such  a  congregation,  as  they 
might  have  occasion  to  say  that  a  congregation  of  some 
such  heretics  were  the  church  that  God  spake  of — Now, 
as  touching  the  cause  why  he  changed  the  name  of  priest 
into  senior,  ye  must  understand  that  Luther  and  his  ad- 
herents hold  this  heresy,  that  holy  order  is  nothing.]    And 

*  Dyaloge,  p.  222. 

t  How  much  importance  More  attached  to  this  point,  is  seen  from  other 
passages,  in  which  he  spealss  of  the  nature  and  efiBcacy  of  the  priestly  office. 
"  But  Tyndale  careth  not  how  he  set  his  words,  so  that  he  may  make  us  to 
believe,  that  we  need  no  priest  to  offer  up  daily  the  same  sacrifice  that  our 
Saviour  offered  once,  and  hath  ordained  to  be  by  priests  perpetually  offered 
in  his  church."  "Now  would  Tyndale  have  us  for  his  pleasure,  in  hatred  of  the 
order  of  priesthood,  believe  that  the  priest  doth  at  the  mass  make  none  offer- 


206  THE   ENGLISH   BIBLE. 

that  a  priest  is  nothing  else  but  a  man  chosen  among 
the  people  to  preach ;  and  by  that  choice  to  that  office,  he 
is  priest  by  and  by,  without  any  more  ado.  .  .  .  But  as  for 
saying  Mass,  and  hearing  of  confession,  and  absolution 
thereon  to  be  given  ;  all  this,  he  saith,  that  every  man, 
•woman,  and  child  may  do  as  well  as  any  priest."  "  Ye 
may  perceive  that  he  thus  used  himself  in  his  translation, 
to  the  intent  that  he  would  set  forth  Luther's  heresies  and 
his  own  thereby.  For  first,  he  would  make  the  people  be- 
lieve that  we  should  believe  nothing  but  plain  Scripture, 
in  which  point  he  teacheth  a  plain  pestilent  heresy.     And 

ing  of  that  holy  sacrifice  for  sin.  With  which  heresy  he  clean  taketh  away 
the  very  fruit  of  the  mass,  in  which  that  blessed  sacrament  is  most  honored 
qfihe  -people,  and  is  also  most  profitable  unto  the  people." — Ans.  to  Tynd* 
Preface,  p.  392.  "  And  be  a  priest  never  so  nought,  ....  yet  this  advantage 
take  wo  by  the  privilege  and  prerogative  of  his  priesthood,  ....  that  be  he 
never  so  vicious,  and  therewith  so  impenitent,  and  so  far  from  all  purpose  of 
amendment,  that  his  prayers  were  afore  the  face  of  God  rejected  and  ab- 
horred, yet  that  sacred  sacrifice  and  sweet  oblation  of  Christ's  holy  body, 
oflfered  up  by  his  oflBce,  can  take  none  impairing  by  the  filth  of  his  sin,  but 
highly  helpeth  to  the  upholding  of  this  wretched  world,  from  the  vengeance 
and  wrath  of  God,  and  is  to  God  acceptable,  and  to  us  as  available  for  the 
thing  itself,  as  if  it  were  oflFered  by  a  better  man." — Dyaloge,  p.  226.  And 
what  is  the  sacrifice  which  the  priest  first  creates,  and  then  offers  7  Let ' 
More  himself  answer.  It  is  "  that  holy,  blessed,  glorious  flesh  and  blood  of 
Almighty  God  himself,  with  his  celestial  soul  therein,  and  with  the  majesty 
of  his  eternal  godhead."  —  Treatise  on  the  Passion,  p.  1264.  "  It  is  under 
the  form  and  likeness  of  bread,  the  very  self-same  body  and  the  very  self- 
same blood,  that  died  and  was  shed  upon  the  cross  for  our  sin,  and  the  third  day 
gloriously  did  rise  again  to  life,  and  with  the  souls  of  holy  saints  fetched  out 
of  hell,  ascended  and  styed  [rose]  up  wonderfully  into  heaven,  and  there  sitteth 
on  the  right  hand  of  the  Father,  and  shall  visibly  descend  in  great  glory  to 
judge  the  quick  and  the  dead,  and  reward  all  men  after  to  their  works." — 
lb.  1266. 

It  was  no  false  charge  that  Tyndale,  in  refusing  to  recognize  this  office 
in  the  English  New  Testament,  "  went  about  to  make  a  change  in  the  [Ro- 
mish] faith." 


SHALL  THE  PEOPLE  HAVE  THE  BIBLE?      207 

then  would  he,  with  his  false  translation,  make  the  people 
ween  farther,  that  such  articles  of  our  faith  as  he  laborcth 
to  destroy,  and  which  be  well  proved  by  Holy  Scripture, 
were  in  Holy  Scripture  nothing  spoken  of;  but  that  the 
preachers  have,  all  this  fifteen  hundred  year,  misreported 
the  Gospel,  an"d  Englished  the  Scripture  wrong,  to  lead  the 
people  purposely  out  of  the  right  way." 

Nor  does  Tyndale,  in  his  reply  to  More,  treat  the  moot- 
ed renderings  as  a  matter  of  indifference.  "  Wherefore," 
he  says,*  "  inasmuch  as  the  clergy  (as  the  nature  of  those 
hard  and  indurate  adamant  stones  is  to  draw  all  to  them,) 
had  appropriated  unto  themselves  the  term,  that  of  right 
is  common  to  all  the  whole  congregation  of  them  that  be- 
lieve in  Christ,!  and  with  their  false  and  subtle  wiles,  had 
beguiled  and  mocked  the  people,  and  brought  them  into 
ignorance  of  the  word  ;  making  them  understand  by  the 
word  church,  nothing  but  the  shaven  flock  of  them  that 
shore  the  whole  world ;  therefore,  in  the  translation  of  the 
New  Testament,  where  I  found  this  word,  ecclesia^  I  in- 
terpreted it  by  this  word,  congregation.''''  "  And  that  I  use 
this  word,  knowledge.,  and  not  confession  ;  and  this  word, 

*  Tyndale's  Works,  vol.  ii.,  p.  14. 

f  More  foolishly  cavils  at  this  assertion  of  Tyndale,  as  if  he  had  said  that 
the  laity  vrere  in  no  sense  included  in  the  Romish  church.  But  he  does  not 
attempt  to  deny  or  evade,  so  patent  was  the  fact,  that  whenever  The 
Church  was  spoken  of  with  the  idea  of  power  and  authority,  the  clergy  alone 
were  included.  When  the  church  was  said  to  have  decided  on  a  doctrine,  or 
a  course  of  policy,  or  to  have  performed  any  high  judicial  act,  it  was  under- 
stood of  them  alone ;  the  laity  having  no  voice  in  spiritual  matters.  Through 
their  courts,  synods,  and  general  councils — subject  only  to  the  Pope— they 
could  at  pleasure  alter  or  abolish  the  laws  of  Christ,  and  institute  (on  paia 
of  excommunication,  chains  and  the  stake,)  new  articles  of  faith  for  tho 
whole  body.  And  this,  by  virtue  of  the  authority  delegated  to  St.  Peter 
and  his  successors,  was  tho  voice  of  The  Church  ! 


208  THE    ENGLISH   BIBL-E. 

repentance,  and  not  penance.  In  which  all,  he  cannot 
prove  that  I  give  not  the  right  English  unto  the  Greek 
word.  But  it  is  a  far  other  thing  that  paineth  them,  and 
biteth  them  by  the  breasts.  There  be  secret  pangs  that 
pinch  the  very  hearts  of  them,  whereof  they  dare  not  com- 
plain. The  sickness  that  maketh  them  so  impatient  is, 
that  tJicy  have  lost  their  juggling  terms.^'*  "  So  now  the 
causes  why  our  prelates  thus  rage,  and  that  moveth  them 
to  call  Mr.  More  to  help,  is,  not  that  they  find  just  causes 
in  the  translation,  but  because  they  have  lost  their  juggling 
and  feigned  terms,  wherewith  Peter  prophesied  they  should 
make  merchandize  of  the  people."! 

Now  Sir  Thomas  More  did  not  pretend  that  Tyndale's 
translation  misrepresented,  in  these  points,  the  original 
meaning  of  the  words  used  in  the  Greek  text.  His  posi- 
tion was  this  :  The  sacred  writers  did  indeed,  of  necessity, 
use  for  the  expression  of  Christian  ideas,  words  taken  from 
common  life ;  but  they  used  them  in  a  peculiar  sense. 
Thus  the  Greek  word  presbyteros  (translated  by  Tyndale, 
senior,  or  elder,)  meant  nothing  more  than  this,  until  it 
was  employed  to  designate  an  office  in  the  Christian  church, 
to  which  were  attached  certain  mystical  functions  and  pre- 
rogatives. This  mystical  Christian  idea,  is  expressed  in 
English  by  the  word  Priest ;  and  to  substitute  for  it  the . 
literal  rendering,  senior  .or  elder,  while  it  is  true  to  the 
words  of  Scripture,  falsifies  its  sense.  So  ecclesia,  which 
meant  nothing,  originally,  but  a  congregation  or  assembly, 
of  whatever  kind,  was  by  them  applied  to  that  mystical 
body  of  Christ,  wherein  he  perpetually  resides  by  his  Spi- 
rit, and  which  is  represented  in  English  by  the  consecrated 

*  Tyndale's  Works,  vol.  ii.,  p.  22.  f  Ibid,  p.  24. 


SHALL  THE  PEOPLE  HAVE  THE  BIBLE?      209 

word,  Church.     To  translate  ccdesia  by  the  secular  word, 
congregation,  is  therefore,  to  lose  the  inspired  meaning. 

There  is  certainly  something  plausible  in  this  view  at 
first  sight;  but  it  will  not  bear  the  touchstone  of  tho 
foundation-principle  of  Protestantism,  for  a  single  mo- 
ment. Who  -was  to  settle  the  mystical  Christian  sense  of 
the  words  used  by  the  sacred  writers  ?  Sir  Thomas  had 
a  ready  answer, — The  Holy  Catholic  Church  which  can- 
not err.  Once  admit  that  first  great  tenet,  which  he  had 
so  labored  to  establish,  and  all  his  inferences  followed  with 
the  force  of  logical  demonstration.  Admit  that,  and  it 
was  proved  without  farther  trouble,  that  a  vernacular  Bi- 
ble should  conform,  in  the  principles  of  its  translation,  to 
"whatever  sense  the  church,  by  its  doctrines  and  usages, 
should  have  put  upon  the  words  of  inspiration. 

But  Tyndale  had  an  altogether  dift'erent  notion  of  the 
office  of  a  translator  of  the  Scriptures.  No  man,  and  no 
body  of  men,  might  stand  between  him  and  the  Sacred  Ora- 
cles, of  which  he  had  undertaken  to  give  a  faithful  reflex- 
ion to  his  countrymen.  "I  call  God  to  record," — such  is 
his  solemn  appeal  to  the  Searcher  of  hearts, — "  against 
the  day  we  shall  appear  before  the  Lord  Jesus,  to  give  a 
reckoning  of  our  doings,  that  I  never  altered  one  syllable 
of  God's  word  against  my  conscience,  nor  would  this  day 
if  all  that  is  in  the  earth,  whether  it  be  pleasure,  honor, 
or  riches,  might  be  given  me."  Having  diligently  labored 
to  ascertain  the  exact  meaning  of  the  sacred  original,  as  it 
spoke  to  those  whom  it  first  addressed,  it  was  his  single 
aim  to  reproduce  it  in  those  words  of  his  mother  tongue, 
which  would  give  that  meaning  to  the  minds  of  his  coun- 
trymen. He  asked  not  whether  the  word  were  holy  or 
profane.     Any  word  was  holy  to  him  which  conveyed  truly 


210  THE    ENGL'SH   BIBLE. 

and  clearly  the  mind  of  the  Holy  Spirit.*  Sir  Thomas 
More  would  have  welcomed,  at  least  so  he  professed,  a  ver- 
nacular Bible,  if  so  translated  as  not  to  put  in  question 
•with  the  common  people  the  faith  and  practice  of  his  church. 
This  he  deemed  a  greater  evil  than  to  deprive  them  of  the 
Scriptures.  Tyndale  believed  that,  whatever  became  of 
that  church  or  any  other,  God  had  aright  to  speak  directly 
to  the  common  people,  and  that  the  people  had  a  right  to 
hear  him.  It  was  this  belief,  and  his  honest,  manly,  Cliris- 
tian  adherence  to  it,  unmoved  by  fear  or  favor,  which  con- 
stituted him  God's  special  messenger  to  his  age,  to  break 
the  iron  rule  of  priestcraft,  and  to  usher  in  a  new  epoch  of 
soul-liberty  and  pure  religion. 

The  persecuting  spirit  of  the  anti-Bible  principle  is  well 

*  It  must  be  confessed  that,  in  one  point,  More  had  his  opponent  at  disad- 
vantage. Why,  he  asks,  does  not  Tyndale,  on  his  professed  principles, 
translate  bishop  and  deacoii,  names  of  ecclesiastical  offices,  equally  with 
presbyter,  by  their  secular  equivalents  "  overseer  "  and  "  server."  And  in 
another  passage  he  sneeringly  says,  that  his  translation  of  "  priest "  by 
"  elder,"  is  just  the  same  as  if  he  should  render  "  baptisma  "  into  "  wash- 
ing," to  make  men  ween  it  were  no  other  manner  of  washing  when  the 
priest  christeneth  a  child  than  when  a  woman  washeth  a  buck  of  clothes," 
(Confut.  428.)  With  Tyndale's  explicit  statement  of  his  view  of  the  offices 
of  bishop  and  deacon  before  us,  it  is  difficult  to  see  why  he  exposed  himself  to 
the  charge  of  inconsistency  by  leaving  the  words  untranslated. 

In  regard  to  baplism  no  explanation  is  needed  ;  since  it  is  evident  from 
the  writings  of  the  time  that  the  word  then  had  but  one  signification.  Thus 
Tyndale:  "  Tribulation  is  our  right  baptism,  and  is  signified  by  plunging 
into  the  waterj''  "  The  plunging  into  the  water  signifieth,  that  we  die  and 
are  buried  with  Christ  as  concerning  the  old  life  of  sin  which  is  in  Adam. 
And  the  pulling  out  again  signifieth,  that  we  rise  again  with  Christ  in  a  new 
life. "2  "  Ask  the  people  what  they  understand  by  their  baptism,  or  wash- 
ing, and  thou  shalt  see  that  they  believe  how  that  the  very  plunging  into  the 
water  saveth  them."^  "  For  the  plunging  into  the  water,  as  it  betokencth 
on  the  one  part  that  Christ  hath  washed  our  souls  in  his  bloo  1  "  &c.  * 

1  Works  of  the  Eng.  Reformers,  vol.  1,  p.  174.     'ib.2S7.    3  J6.  310.    *ih.in. 


SHALL     THE    PEOPLE    HAVE    THE    EtBLE  ?  211 

illustrated  in  that  of  its  great  cliampion.  It  being  riglit 
to  forbid  the  Scriptures  to  the  people,  it  was  right  also  to 
■use  all  such  means  as  might  be  necessary  to  prevent  their 
obtaining  them.  It  being  right  to  keep  the  Scriptures  out 
of  their  reach  by  laws  temporal  and  spiritual,  it  was  right, 
also,  to  affix  such  penalties  to  these  laws  as  would  ensure 
obedience.  It  is  really  appalling,  as  one  turns  over  these 
long  folios,  betokening  the  author's  unwearied  interest  in 
his  theme,  to  remark,  how,  from  begining  to  end,  they  hiss 
and  sparkle  with  the  fires  of  remorseless  zealotism.  The 
captions  to  a  few  chapters  of  the  "  Dyaloge  "  indicate  his 
position  in  regard  to  the  treatment  of  those  who,  in  this 
great  matter,  ventured  to  recognize  a  higher  law  than  that 
of  King  Henry,  or  the  Romish  Bishops.  Chapter  thir- 
teenth is  headed  thus  :  "  The  author  showeth  his  opinion 
concerning  the  burhing  of  heretics,  and  that  it  is  lawful, 
necessary  and  well  done ;  and  showeth  also  that  the  clergy 

So  Frith,  in  his  "  Declaration  of  Baptism  :  "  "  The  sign  in  baptism  is  the 
plunging  down  into  the  material  water  and  lifting  up  again,  by  the  which, 
as  by  an  outward  badge,  we  are  known  to  be  of  that  number  which  profess 
Christ  to  be  their  Redeemer  and  Saviour."'  "  By  this  we  may  perceive  how 
gross  their  ignorance  is  which  without  discretion,  condemn  the  infants  that 
depart  out  of  the  world  not  baptised  in  our  material  water.  '  For  if  that 
water  give  no  grace,  as  I  have  sufiSciently  proved,  why  should  they  condemn 
more  before  that  washing  than  after  ?  "^  "  A  Christian  man's  life  is  noth- 
ing more  than  a  continual  baptism,  which  is  begun  when  we  are  dipped  in 
the  water."^  "  The  ceremonies  of  baptism  are  easily  expressed  if  thou 
know  what  the  substance  of  it  is,  and  how  the  apostles  ministered  it ;  and 
where  may  we  have  that  better  expressed  than  Acts  viii,  viz  :  where  Philip 
baptised  the  Eunuch,  chamberlain  to  the  Queen  of  Candace?  This  Eu- 
nuch did  acknowledge  that  Jesus  was  the  Son  of  God,  which  is  the  sign  of 
our  faith,  and  desired  baptism  ;  and  Philip,  at  the  next  water  they  came  to, 
washed  him  in  the  name  of  the  Father,  and  of  the  Son,  and  of  the  Holy 
Ghost."^ 

1  V.l.  Ill,  p.  284.    2  Works  of  the  Eng.  Refonners,  2S6.    =  ib.  290.    *  ib.  293. 


212  THE    ENGLISH    BIBLE. 

doth  not  procure  it,  but  only  the  good  and  politic  provision 
of  the  temporalty."*  Chapter  fourteenth  :  "  The  author 
somewhat  showeth  that  the  clergy  doth  no  wrong  in  leav- 
ing heretics  to  secular  hands,  though  their  death  follow 
thereon."  Chapter  fifteenth  :  "  That  princes  be  bound  to 
punish  heretics,  and  that  fair  handlinghelpeth  but  little  with 
many  of  them."  Chapter  eighteenth  :  "  The  author  sheweth 
that  in  the  condemnation  of  heretics  the  clergy  might  law- 
fully do  much  more  sharply  than  they  do ;  and  that,  in 
deed  and  clearness,  doth  no  more  now  against  heretics  than 
the  apostle  counselleth,  and  the  old  holy  doctors  did."  Un- 
der the  latter  heading  he  instances  the  case  mentioned  in 
the  Epistle  to  the  Corinthians,  of  Hymeneus  and  Alexander, 
whom  Paul  had  "  delivered  unto  Satan  that  they  might 
learn  not  to  blaspheme."  "  In  which  words,"  says  More, 
"we  may  well  learn  that  St.  Paul,  as  apostle  and  spiritual 
governor  in  that  country,  finding  them  twain  fallen  from 
the  faith  of  Christ,  ....  did  cause  the  devil  to  torment 
and  punish  their  bodies,  which  every  man  may  well  wit 
was  no  small  pain,  and,  peradventure,  not  without  death 
also.  .  .  And  this  bodily  punishment  did  St.  Paul,  as  it 
appcareth,  upon  heretics ;  so  if  the  clergy  did  unto  much 
more  blasphemous  heretics  much  more  sorrow  than  St. 
Paul  did  to  them,  they  should  neither  do  it  without  good 
cause,  nor  without  great  authority  and  evident  example  of 

*  This  dishonest  evasion  was  unworthy  of  Sir  Thomas  More.  "As 
though,"  says  Tyndale,  in  his  answer,  (vol.  II,  p.  222,)  "the  Pope  had  not 
first  found  the  law,  and  as  though  all  his  preachers  babbled  not  that  in  every 
sermon,  '  Burn  these  heretics,  burn  them,  for  we  have  no  other  argument  to 
convince  them  ; '  and  as  though  they  compelled  not  both  king  and  emperor 
to  swear  that  they  shall  so  do  ere  they  crown  them  !  "  It  was  customary 
for  the  bishop,  when  delivering  over  convicted  heretics  to  the  secular  mag- 
istrate, bound  by  his  oath  of  office  to  burn  them  at  the  stake,  to  intreat  tliat 
ke  would  do  them  no  harm ! 


SHALL  THE  PEOPLE  HAVE  THE  BIBLE?      213 

Cbrist's  blessed  Apostles.  And  surely  when  our  Saviour 
himself  called  such  heretics  wolves  in  sheep's  clothing, 
....  the  prelates  of  Christ's  church  rather  ought  tempo- 
rally to  destroy  those  ravenous  wolves,  than  suffer  them 
to  worry  and  devour  everlastingly  the  flock  that  Christ 
bath  committed  unto  their  care."  He  praises  also  the 
foresight  and  piety  of  those  Christian  princes  who,  like 
Henry  IV,  discerning  the  tendencies  of  heresy,  not  only  to 
corrupt  the  souls  of  their  subjects,  but  to  destroy  the 
realm  "  with  common  sedition,  insurrection  and  open  war," 
make  provision  that  "  the  sparkle  be  well  quenched  ere  it 
be  grown."  Especially  is  he  unwearied  in  extolling  the 
zeal  of  that  "  most  faithful,  virtuous,  and  erudite  prince," 
Henry  YIII,  who  by  his  learned  books,  and  particularly 
by  his  determined  opposition  to  heresy  within  his  own 
realm,  has  proved  himself  so  eminent  a  defender  of  the 
faith.  He  is  filled  with  loyal  indignation  against  Tyn- 
dale,  who,  in  his  "  Obedience  of  a  Christian  Man,"  had 
counselled  his  readers  to  suffer  any  wrong  to,  their  persons 
or  their  property,  rather  than  resist  the  secular  power ;  a 
Christian  man  being,  he  says,  "  even  bound  to  obey  tyranny 
if  it  be  not  against  his  faith  and  the  law  of  God,  till  God 
deliver  him  thereof"  Only  where  the  ruler's  law  conflicts 
with  his  conscience  and  the  law  of  God,  then  he  is  bound 
to  obey  God  rather  than  man,  and  patiently  abide  the  pen- 
alty. 

This  was  a  tender  point  with  the  willful  and  despotio 
Henry,  who  claimed  to  be  himself  the  conscience  of  his 
kingdom,  and  More  well  knew  how  to  touch  it.  In  that 
caveat,  "  if  it  be  not  against  his  fait! i  and  the  law  of  God^'' 
he  could  discern  the  germ  of  all  mischief.     "  They  bid  the 


214  THE    ENGLISH    BIBLE. 

people,"  he  says,*  for  a  countenance,  to  be  obedient.  But 
they  say  therewith  that  the  laws  and  precepts  of  their  sov- 
ereign do  nothing  bind  the  subjects  in  their  consciences, 
but  [unless]  the  things  by  them  forbidden  or  commanded, 

were  before  forbidden  or  commanded  in  Scripture 

And  thus  it  is  sure  that,  by  their  false  doctrine,  they  must, 
if  they  be  believed,  bring  the  people  into  the  secret  con- 
tempt and  spiritual  disobedience  and  inward  hatred  of  the 
law  ;  whereof  must  after  follow  the  outward  breach,  and 
thereupon  outward  punishment  and  peril  of  rebellion, 
whereby  the  princes  should  be  driven  to  sore  eflFusion  of 
their  subjects'  blood,  as  hath  already  happened  in  Almain, 
and  of  old  time  in  England.  "  Friar  Barnes  |  in  his  fran- 
tic book  biddeth  the  people  they  should  rebel  in  no  wise. 
But  he  biddeth  them  therewith  that  for  all  the  king's  com- 
mandment, they  should  not  suffer  Tyndale's  false  transla- 
tion to  go  out  of  their  hands,  but  die  rather  than  leave  it. 
.  .  .  And  thus  ye  see  how  fain  he  would  glory  in  the 
people's  blood.  For  he  wotteth  very  well  that  the  king's 
highness  will  in  no  wise,  nor  in  no  wise  may,  if  he  will 
save  his  own  soul,  suffer  that  false  translation  in  the 
hands  of  unlearned  people;  which  is  by  an  open  heretic 
purposely  translated  false  to  the  destruction  of  so  many 
souls.  Now  no  man  doubteth,  that  Tyndale  himself  would 
no  less  were  done  for  the  maintenance  of  his  false  transla- 
tion of  the  evangelists,  than  his  evangelical  brother  Barnes  ; 
but  that  folk  should,  against  the  king's  proclamations, 
keep  still  his  books,  and  rather  than  leave  them  die  in  the 
quarrel  in  defence  of  his  glory.  Whereas  I  did  before  in 
my  Dialogue  say,  that  Luther's  books  be  seditious,  as  I  now 

*  Prefax;e  to  the  Confutation,  p.  352. 
t  The  same  mentioned  in  chap.  II. 


SHALL     THE    PEOPLE    HAVE    THE    BIBLE?  2 !  5 

say  that  Tyndale's  be  too,  and  moving  people  to  their 
own  undoing,  to  be  disobedient  and  rebellious  to  their 
sovereigns." 

But  many  a  man  can  persecute  in  theory,  whose  heart 
shrinks  from  the  practical  realization  of  his  principles. 
Not  so  with  Sir  Thomas  More.  It  is  food  for  his  mirth 
to  recall  the  sufferings  of  those  godly  men,  who  had  perished 
at  the  stake  for  nothing  else  than  their  love  to  God  and 
his  truth ;  against  whom  he  could  himself  allege  nothing 
but  their  rejection  of  the  dogmas  of  his  church.  After  a 
garbled  account  of  the  trial  of  one  of  them,  he  exclaimSj 
"  And  this  lo !  is  Sir  Thomas  Hytton,  the  devil's 
stinking  martyr,  of  whose  burning  Tyndale  maketh  boast."* 
"  I  hear  also,"  he  continues,  "  that  Tyndale  rejoiceth  also 
in  the  burning  of  Tewskbury  ;  but  I  can  see  no  very  great 
cause  why,  but  if  he  reckon  it  for  a  great  glory  that  the  man 
did  abide  still  by  the  stake  when  he  was  fast  bound  to  it." 
After  stating  the  proofs  of  Tewksbury's  guilt,  namely,  that 
Wickliffe's  Wicket, f  one  of  Luther's  books,  and  Tyndale's 
"  Mammon  "  and  "  Obedience  "  were  found  in  his  house ; 
he  adds  that  in  his  opinion,  Tewksbury  would  never  have 
become  a  heretic  had  Tyndale's  ungracious  books  never 
come  into  his  hands, — "  for  which  the  poor  wretch  lieth 
now  in  hell  and  crieth  out  on  him  ;  and  Tyndale,  if  he  do 
not  amend  in  time,  he  is  like  to  find  him,  when  they  como 
together,  a  hot  firebrand  burning  at  his  back  that  all  the 
water  in  the  world  will  not  be  able  to  quench." 

We  shall  have  occasion  to  refer  again  to  these  writings 

*  Tyndale  had  alluded  in  one  of  his  books  to  the  constancy  of  this  good 
man. 

■f"  This  treatise  of  the  old  Reformer,  on  the  Sacrament  of  the  Supper,  had 
recently  been  printed,  and  was  a  favorite  manual  on  the  subject  with  the 
pious  Christians  of  the  time. 


216  THE    ENGLISH    BIBLE. 

by  and  by;  but  it  is  presumed  the  reader  has  had  a  suffi- 
cient taste  of  them  for  the  present.  Immediately  after  the 
publication  of  the  "Dialogue,"  in  the  spring  of  1529,  Sir 
Thomas  More  left  England  to  represent,  conjointly  with 
Tunstal  and  Haekett,  the  interests  of  Henry  in  the  royal 
conference,  appointed  at  Cambray,  for  adjusting  the  dif- 
ferences between  the  Emperor  and  the  King  of  France. 
The  result  was  a  treaty  between  Henry  and  the  Emperor, 
one  article  of  which  secured  the  continuance  of  their  com- 
mercial relations ;  the  other  a  mutual  pledge  to  prohibit 
the  printing,  sale  and  importation  of  all  LtUheran  hooks 
within  their  respective  dominions.*  Under  this  convenient 
tei'm  were  included,  as  before  mentioned,  all  books  in 
English  as  well  as  in  other  languages,  offensive  to  the 
church  of  Rome ;  and  of  these  Tyndale's  New  Testament 
stood  first  on  the  list. 

This  important  negotiation  being  happily  concluded,  the 
colleagues  parted, — Tunstal  for  Antwerp,  to  repeat  the 
experiment  of  buying  up  all  the  English  New  Testaments 
in  that  market ;  More  for  England, — to  receive  full  power 
to  put  in  practice  the  intolerant  principles  which  he  had 
advocated  with  his  pen. 

But  the  oft  repeated  challenge  of  the  reformer,  thus  ex- 
pressed in  the  Prologue  to  his  translation  of  the  Penta- 
teuch, remained  unanswered  :  "I  submit  this  work,  and 
all  other  that  I  have  either  made  or  translated,  or  shall 
in  time  to  come,  (if  it  be  God's  will  that  I  further  labor 
in  that  harvest,)  unto  all  them  that  submit  themselves  un- 
to the  word  of  God,  to  be  corrected  by  them ;  yea,  and 
moreover,  to  be  disallowed  and  also  burnt,  if  it  seem  wor- 
thy, so  tliat  they  first  put  forth  of  their  own  translating 
atwther  that  is  more  correct.'''' 

*  Anderson's  Annals,  Vol.  1.  p.  213. 


CHAPTER    VIII. 


SIR  THOMAS  MORE  AS  CHANCELLOR. 

Soon  after  Sir  Thomas  More's  return  from  France,  he 
■was  raised  to  the  dignity  of  Lord  Chancellor  of  England, 
made  vacant  by  the  fall  of  Wolsey — the  highest  office  in 
the  royal  gift.  The  distinction  was  the  greater,  from  the 
fact  that  this  was  the  first  time,  during  a  hundred  years, 
in  which  it  had  been  be'stowed  on  a  layman.  This  innova- 
tion on  long-established  usages,  would  once  have  been 
hailed  as  an  auspicious  omen  to  the  cause  of  religious  tol- 
eration. When  clerical  chancellors  used  the  office  for  the 
suppression  of  free  inquiry,  it  was  no  more  than  might 
have  been  looked  for  in  men  whose  personal  interests 
were  at  stake ;  from  a  layman,  a  more  liberal  view  of  the 
general  interests  of  the  country  might  naturally  be  ex- 
pected. 

The  result  was  precisely  the  reverse.  Hitherto  the 
government,  as  such,  had  taken  no  active  and  avowed  part 
in  persecution  at  home.  The  decrees,  mandates,  secret 
searches,  trials  of  heretics,  &c.,  noticed  in  the  foregoing 
chapters,  had  emanated  from  the  direct  action  of  the  church. 
Now,  however,  under  the  administration  of  the  great  lay- 
man and  commoner,  we  first  see  the  secular  power  openly 


218  THE    ENGLISH    BIBLE. 

linked  with  the  church  in  this  work,  and  taking  the  lead 
as  guardian  ex  officio,  of  the  religious  opinions  of  the 
realm.  His  position  on  this  subject  was  significantly  indi- 
cated in  his  opening  speech  as  Chancellor ;  as  also  in  the 
articles  of  impeachment  against  Wolsey,  presented  by  him 
to  Henry  in  the  name  of  the  Lords.  In  one  of  these,  the 
Cardinal  is  accused  of  having  "  interfered  with  the  due  and 
direct  correction  of  heresies,  highly  to  the  danger  and  peril 
of  the  whole  body  and  good  Christian  people  of  this  realm." 
His  successor  evidently  did  not  intend  that  his  policy 
should  be  liable  to  such  a  charge ;  and  if  we  recall  the 
course  of  Wolsey,  we  shall  feel  assured  that  no  half-way 
measures  were  in  contemplation. 

The  prognostic  was  soon  verified.  On  the  24th  of  De- 
cember, 1529,  just  two  months  after  his  induction  into 
office,  .there  appeared,  "  in  the  name  of  the  King  our. 
Sovereign  Lord,"  a  manifesto,  exceeding  in  the  cruelty 
of  its  provisions  all  that  the  bishops  had  hitherto  attempted 
by  their  own  authority.  By  this  "  fierce  and  terrible  pro- 
clamation," as  Foxe  calls  it,  the  civil  power  bound  itself 
to  be  the  right  arm  of  the  church  in  the  extirpation  of 
heresy.  "  The  Chancellor,  the  Treasurer  of  England,  the 
Justice  of  the  one  bench  and  of  the  other.  Justices  of 
Peace,  SherifFe.,  Mayors,  Bailies,  and  other  officers,"  such 
is  its  language,  "  shall  make  oath,  on  taking  their  charge, 
to  give  their  whole  power  and  diligence  to  put  away,  and 
make  utterly  to  cease  and  destroy,  all  errors  and  heresies 
commonly   called    Lollardies.  *       They   shall    assist   the 

*  This  name,  as  Anderson  remarks,  points  to  indigenous  heresies,  identi- 
cal with  those  of  'Wiclsliffe  and  his  followers  ;  not  to  those  of  foreign  origin, 
which  were,  in  distinction,  called  Lutheran — though  the  latter  teim  was  often 
applied  to  both. 


SIR  THOMAS  MORE  AB  CHANCELLOR.        219 

Bishops  and  their  Commissaries,  shall  favor  and  maintain 
them  as  often  as  by  them  required."  "  The  Justices  of 
the  King's  Bench,  Justices  of  Peace  and  of  Assize,  shall 
enquire  at  their  sessions  of  all  those  that  hold  errors  or 
heresies,  and  who  be  their  maintainers,  the  common  writers 

of  books,  and  also  of  their  schools,  sermons,  &c." 

"  Oflonders  to  be  delivered  to  the  Bishops  or  Commissa- 
ries, by  indenture  between  them,  to  be  made  within  ten 
days  or  sooner,  ....  to  be  acquitted  or  condemned  after 
the  laws  of  Holy  Church."  If  convicted,  the  secular 
power  was  again  to  receive  them,  and  without  farther  trial, 
to  carry  the  sentence  of  the  Bishop  into  execution.  The 
proclamation  was  especially  severe  against  the  writers, 
venders,  and  readers  of  heretical  books,  of  which  a  list 
was  given,  including  ninety-four  in  Latin,  and  twenty-four 
in  English.  At  the  head  stood,  what  More  called  "  the 
father  of  them  all,"  the  New  Testament  of  Tyndale. 

Yet  so  little  eifect  had  these  vigorous  measures  in  coun- 
jteracting  the  mischief,  that  in  the  following  spring  the 
aged  Bishop  of  Norwich  complains,  in  a  pathetic  appeal  to 
the  Archbishop,  that  he  is  "  accumbered  by  such  as  keep- 
eth  and  readeth  these  erroneous  books  in  English,  and 
believe  and  give  credence  to  the  same,  and  teach  others 
that  they  should  do  so."  "  My  Lord,"  he  adds,  "  I  have 
done  that  lyeth  in  me  for  the  suppression  of  such  persons ; 
but  it  passeth  my  power  or  of  any  spiritual  man  to  do  it;" 
and  he  expresses  his  apprehension  that  if  not  speedily 
checked,  "  they  will  undo  us  all." 

But  the  high  powers  of  church  and  state,  were  well  aware 
of  the  alarming  aspect  of  things,  and  were  already  prepar- 
ing for  a  movement  which  they  intended  should  be  deci- 
sive. 


220  THE    ENGLISH    BIBLE. 

In  the  library  at  Lambeth  palace,  is  preserved  an  an- 
cient document,  bearing  date  May  28,  1530,  which  covers 
eight  skins  of  parchment,  written  on  both  sides  in  a  very 
fine  hand,  the  record  of  this  combination  of  the  temporal 
and  spiritual  powers  to  prop  up  the  falling  kingdom  of 
darkness,  and  check  the  triumphant  progress  of  the  word 
of  God.*  The  Lord  Chancellor  thus  describes  the  im- 
posing ceremonial  of  its  publication  :  "  For  I  well  know 
that  the  King's  highness,  which  as  he  for  his  most  faithful 
mind  to  God,  nothing  more  eflfectually  desireth  than  the 
maintainance  of  the  true  Catholic  faith  whereof  he  is,  by 
his  no  more  honorable  than  well-deserved  title,  Defensor ; 
so  nothing  more  detesteth,  than  these  pestilent  books 
that  Tyndale  and  such  other  send  into  the  realm,  to  set 
forth  their  abominable  heresies  withal ;  doth  of  his  blessed 
disposition,  of  all  earthly  things  abhor  the  necessity  to  do 
punishment ;  and  for  that  cause  hath  not  only,  by  his 
most  famous  erudite  books,  both  in  English  and  in  Latin, 
declared  his  most  Catholic  purpose  and  intent,  but  also, 
by  his  open  proclamations  divers  times  iterate  and  renewed, 
and  finally,  in  his  own  most  royal  person,  in  the  Star  Cham- 
ber, most  eloquently  by  his  own  mouth,  in  great  presence 
of  his  lords  spiritual  and  temporal,  gave  monition  and 
warning  to  all  justices  of  peace  of  every  quarter  of  his 
realm,  then  assembled  before  his  highness,  to  be  by  them 
in  all  their  countries  [shires]  to  all  his  people  declared, 
and  did  prohibit  and  forbid,  upon  great  pains,  the  bring- 
ing in,  reading,  and  keeping  any  of  those  pernicious,  poi- 
soned books,  to  the  intent  that  every  subject  of  his,  by  the 
mean  of  such  manifold  effectual  warning,  with  his  gracious 
remission  X)f  their  former  oiFence  in  his  commandments 
*  Offer's  Memoir  of  Tyndale,  p.  54. 


SIR    THOMAS    MOx^E    AS    CHANCELLOR.  221 

before  broken,  should  from  thenceforth  avoid  and  eschew 
the  peril  and  danger  of  punishment,  and  not  drive  his 
hio-hness  of  necessity  to  the  thing  from  which  the  mildness 
of  his  benign  nature  abhorreth."* 

The  instrument  commences  with  a  solemn  appeal  to 
God  and  alFtrue  Christian  people,  and  an  explanation  of 
the  reasons  for  which  it  was  set  forth  ;  followed  by  a  Bill 
in  English,  to  be  published  by  the  preachers  in  all  the 
realm ;  and  closes  with  the  statement,  that  his  Grace's 
Highness  did  "  then  and  there,  in  the  presence  of  all  the 
personages  there  assembled,  require  three  Notaries  to  make 
public  and  authentic  instruments,  and  set  thereunto  our 
seal  accordingly." 

This  great  movement  had  not  been  resolved  on  without 
due  forethought  and  preparation.  It  is  stated  in  the  pream- 
ble to  the  instrument  itself,  that  the  King,  being  informed  of 
the  alarming  spread  o-f  heresy  iu  his  dominions,  through 
books  in  the  English  tongue  brought  from  beyond  the  sea, 
had  caused  a  collection  of  these  to  be  submitted  to  "  his 
council,  prelates,  and  divers  learned  men  of  both  universi- 
ties, and  others,  for  examination ;  who,  being  thus  prepared, 
met  for  consultation  at  the  palace  at  Westminster,  and 
unanimously  resolved,  that  the  said  books  "  do  swarm  full 
of  heresies  and  detestable  opinions."  These  heresies,  some 
two  hundred  in  number,  are  engrossed  at  full  length  on 
the  deed;  which  proceeds  to  declare,  that  "the  books  con- 
taining the  same,  with  the  translation  also  of  Scripture, 
corrupted  by  William  Tyndale,  as  well  in  the  Old  Testa- 
ment as  in  the  New,  the  King's  highness,  with  the  assent 
of  the  prelates  and  universities,  has  determined  utterly  to 
be  expelled,  rejected,  ana  put  away  out  of  the  hands  of 
*  Preface  to  the  Confutation,  p.  351. 


"222  THE    ENGLISH    BIBLE. 

his  people.  And  the  King  orders  all  preachers  in  his 
realm  to  publish  the  commands  of  his  highness  in  a  bill,  in 
English,  to  be  read  in  every  church  and  chapel  in  the  king- 
dom during  divine  service." 

This  bill  required  all  the  King's  subjects,  who  had  in 
possession  the  books  specified,  or  others  of  like  character, 
henceforth  "  to  detest  them,  to  abhor  them,  to  keep  them 
not  in  their  hands,  to  deliver  them  up  to  the  superiors, 
such  as  call  for  them.  And  if  any  thing  of  the  poison  re- 
mained in  their  minds,  they  were  to  forget  it,  or  by  informa- 
tion of  the  truth,  expel  it."  "This,"  it  proceeds,  "ye  ought 
to  do ;  and  being  obstinate,  the  prelates  of  the  church 
ought  to  compel  you;  and  your  Prince  to  punish  and 
correct  you,  not  doing  the  same."  Then  follows  the  King's 
decision  in  regard  to  "  the  Scripture  in  the  vulgar  tongue, 
and  in  the  co7mnon  people^ s  hanch^''  which  is  :  "  that  hav- 
ing of  the  whole  Scripture  is  not  necessary  to  Christian 
men ;  and  that  the  King's  highness  having  advised  with 
his  council,  and  other  great  learned  men,  thinketh  in  his 
conscience,  that  the  divulging  of  the  Scripture  at  this  time, 
in  the  English  tongue,  to  be  committed  to  the  people, 
should  rather  be  to  their  farther  confusion  and  destruction, 
than  to  the  edification  of  their  souls.  And  it  was  thought 
there,  in  that  assembly,  that  the  King's  highness  and  the 
Prelates  in  so  doing,  not  suffering  the  Scriptures  to  be  di- 
vulged and  communicated  to  the  people  in  the  English 
tongue  at  this  time,  doth  well." 

This  actioii  was  followed  by  a  royal  proclamation,  di- 
rected expressly  and  solely  against  the  works  of  Tyndale. 
"  The  King's  subjects  are  commanded  to  deliver  up  all 
such  books  within  fifteen  days;  and  the  judges,  justices, 
constables,  and  all  officers,  are  ordered  to  seize  all  who  re- 


SIR  THOMAS  MORE  AS  CHANCELLOR.        223 

fuse,  or  are  suspected  of  possessing  them,  and  bring  them 
before  the  King  and  his  council,  that  they  may  be  corrected 
and  punished  for  their  contempt,  to  the  terrible  example 
of  other  transgressors."  It  decrees  moreover,  that  the 
Scriptures  in  English  "  are  books  of  heresy^  and  shall  be 
clearly  exterminated  and  exiled  out  of  this  realm  of  Eng- 
land forever." 

These  formidable  manifestos  received  an  appropriate 
seal  and  confirmation  at  the  hands  of  Bishop  Tunstal,  the 
friend  and  confidant  of  the  Lord  Chancellor,  in  a  second 
great  Bible-burning  at  Paul's  cross.  '  The  story  of  the  Bi- 
bles used  for  this  purpose  has  been  often  repeated,  and  its 
truth,  in  substance,  is  beyond  a  doubt. 

Bishop  Tunstal,  it  will  be  recollected,  had  proceeded 
from  Cambray  to  Antwerp,  for  the  purpose  of  getting  pos- 
session of  the  English  Bibles  then  in  that  market.  Foxe* 
thus  relates  the  process  by  which  he  accomplished  his 
object : 

"  Here  it  is  to  be  remembered,  that  at  this  present  time, 
one  Augustine  Packington,  a  mercer  and  merchant  of 
London,  the  same  time  was  in  Antwerp,  where  the  Bishop 
then  was  ;  and  this  Packington  was  a  man  that  highly  fa- 
vored Tyndale,  but  to  the  Bishop  showed  the  contrary. 
The  Bishop,  desirous  of  having  his  purpose  brought  to 
pass,  communed  of  the  New  Testaments,  and  how  gladly 
he  would  buy  them.  Packington  then  hearing  him  say 
so,  said :  '  My  Lord,  if  it  be  your  pleasure,  I  can  in  this 
matter  do  more,  I  dare  say,  than  most  of  the  merchants 
of  England  that  are  here,  for  I  know  the  Dutchmen  (i.  e. 
Germans)  and  strangers  that  have  bought  them  of  Tyndale, 
and  have  them  here  to  sell ;  so  that  if  it  be  your  Lord- 
*  Anderson,  vol.  1,  p.  214. 


224  THE   ENGLISH   BIBLE.  , 

ship's  pleasure  to  pay  for  them — for  otherwise  I  cannot 
come  by  them,  but  I  must  disburse  money  for  them — I  will 
then  assure  you  to  have  every  book  of  them  that  is  im- 
printed, and  is  here  unsold.'  The  Bishop  said:  'Gentle 
Mr.  Packington,  do  your  diligence  and  get  them  ;  and  with 
all  my  heart  I  will  pay  for  them,  whatever  they  cost  you ; 
for  the  books  are  erroneous  and  naught,  and  I  intend  sure- 
ly to  destroy  them  all^  and  to  burn  them  at  Paul's  Cross.' 
Augustine  Packington  then  came  to  Tyndale,  and  said  : 
'  "William,  I  know  thou  art  a  poor  man,  and  hast  a  heap 
of  New  Testaments  and  books  by  thee,  for  which  thou  hcst 
both  endangered  thy  friends  and  beggared  thyself,  and  I 
have  now  gotten  thee  a  merchant,  which,  with  ready  money, 
shall  dispatch  thee  of  all  that  thou  hast,  if  you  think  it 
profitable  to  yourself  '  Who  is  the  merchant?'  said  Tyndale. 
•  The  Bishop  of  London,'  said  Packington.  '  0,  that  is  be- 
cause he  will  burn  them,'  said  Tyndale.  '  Yes,'  quoth  Pack- 
ington. '  I  am  the  gladder,'  said  Tyndale,  '  for  these  two 
benefits  shall  come  thereof:  I  shall  get  money  to  bring 
myself  out  of  debt,  and  the  whole  world  will  cry  out  against 
the  burning  of  God's  word  ;  and  the  overplus  of  the  money 
that  shall  remain  to  me,  shall  make  me  more  studious  to 
correct  the  said  New  Testament,  and  so  newly  to  imprint 
the  same  again ;  and  I  trust  the  second  will  much  better 
like  [please]  you  than  ever  did  the  first.'  So,  forward 
went  the  bargain :  the  Bishop  had  the  books,  Packington 
had  the  thanks,  and  Tyndale  had. the  money."* 

.  *  Tyndale's  conduct,  as  thus  represented  by  Foxe,  has  been  objected  to, 
as  not  strictly  in  accordance  with  that  "simplicity  and  godly  sincerity"  which 
usually  characterized  him.  It  is  very  certain  that  he  could  never  have  ori- 
ginated or  managed  such  a  negotiation ;  but  one  can  imagine  him  smiling 
in  grave  humor,  to  see  the  wily  enemy  of  truth  thus  circumvent  himself. 
It  was  a  boTux  fide  sale ;  the  Bishop  had  for  his  money  just  what  he  wanted 


SIR  THOMAS  MORE  AS  CHANCELLOR.        225 

These  were  the  volumes  now  brought  forth  to  signalize, 
by  a  bonfire  of  Bibles,  the  recent  renewal  of  the  marriago 
covenant  between  the  state  and  the  church.  In  the  words 
of  Anderson,  "  The  Clergy  and  the  Star  Chamber  were  now 
in  perfect  harmony." 

But  lest  there  should  be  any  doubt  whether  he  were  in- 
deed the  leader'  in  these  measures,  the  Lord  Chancellor 
has  made  a  record  on  the  subject  with  his  own  pen.  In 
the  preface  to  the  Confutation,  (published  in  1532,  the 
third  year  of  his  chancellorship,)  immediately  after  the  pas- 
sage quoted  on  p.  220,  he  adds :  "  Now  seeing  the  King's 
gracious  purpose  in  this  point,  I  reckon  that,  being  his  un- 
worthy Chancellor,  it  appertaineth,  as  I  said,  unto  my 
part  and  duty,  to  follow  the  example  of  his  noble  grace, 
and  after  my  poor  wit  and  learning,  with  opening  to  his 
people  the  malice  and  poison  of  these  pernicious  books,  to 
help  as  much  as  in  me  is,  that  his  people,  abandoning  the 
contagion  of  all  such  pestilent  writing,  may  be  far  from  in- 
fection, and  thereby  from  all  such  punishment,  as  follow- 
ing thereupon,  doth  oftentimes  rather  serve  to  make  other 
beware  that  are  yet  clear,  than  to  cure  and  heal  well  those 
that  are  already  infected  ;  so  hard  is  that  carbuncle  catch- 
ing once  a  core,  to  be  by  any  man  well  and  surely  cured. 
Howbeit,  God  so  worketh,  that  sometime  it  is.  Toward 
the  help  whereof,  or  if  it  haply  be  incurable,  then  to  the 
clean  cutting  out  that  part  for  infection  of  the  remnant, 
am  I  by  mine  office  in  virtue  of  my  oathy  and  every  officer 

— only  Tyndale  turned  the  bargain  from  his  bad  intent  to  the  good  one  of 
perfecting  and  multiplying  the  English  Bible.  He  attached  no  such  sa- 
credness  to  a  translation  of  the  Scriptures,  as  to  flinch  from  its  destruction, 
when  this  was  to  be  the  means  of  furnishing  one  nearer  tc  the  inspired 
rigiaal. 

10* 


226  THE  ENGLISH  BIBLE. 

of  justice  through  the  realm  for  his  rate,  right  especially 
bounden,  not  in  reason  only  and  good  congruence,  but  also 
by  plain  obedience  and  statute." 

During  his  whole  administration,  the  fury  of  religious 
persecution  never  relaxed.  On  his  hands,  not  less  than  on 
the  bishops'  whose  zeal  he  stimulated,  and  over  whose 
most  execrable  acts  he  cast  the  shield  of  his  mighty  influ- 
ence and  authority,  lies  the  blood  of  the  martyrs  who  per- 
ished during  the  reign  of  terror.  Some  were  imprisoned, 
loaded  with  irons,  in  his  own  house ;  some  were  whipped, 
some  subjected  to  the  torfure  of  the  rack,  under  his  per- 
sonal supervision,  while  his  mocking  jests  insulted  the 
agony  of  his  victims.  He  was,  moreover,  deeply  involved 
in  those  dastardly  intrigues  for  entrapping  Tyndale,  which 
ended  in  the  imprisonment  and  death  of  this  friend  of  God 
and  man. 

It  is  vain  for  his  eulogists  to  attempt  to  wipe  out  these 
stains  upon  his  memory,  by  char<:ing  Protestant  narrators 
with  misrepresenting  facts.  "Were  there  not  a  line  of 
other  testimony  on  record  against  him,  his  own  writings 
bear  witness  to  principles  so  infamous  and  a  heart  so  cruel, 
that  they  would  have  consigned  any  other  man  to  the  exe- 
cration of  the  world.  His  writings  after  he  retired  from 
oflBce,  show,  if  possible,  a  still  more  bitter  and  blood-thirsty 
spirit  than  while  he  was  in  active  life.  A  great  scandal 
had  come  upon  the  clergy  in  consequence  of  their  tyrannical 
use  of  the  law  ex  officio,  by  which  persons  were  arrested 
on  secret  information  or  mere  suspicion  of  heresy,  and  in 
secret  trial,  without  being  confronted  with  their  accusers, 
were  condemned  to  the  severest  punishments,  even  to  death 
at  the  stake,  on  evidence  extorted  from  themselves  by 
cross-examinations,  threats  and  tortures.     Even  the  mere 


BIR  THOMAS  MORE  AS  CHANCELLOR        227 

inability  to  disprove  the  charge,  was  ground  sufficient  for 
the  extreraest  proceedings  of  this  English  Inquisition. 
Thus  might  any  industrious,  peaceable,  virtuous  citizen, 
■who  had  incurred  the  hatred  of  the  clergy,  or  even  of  an 
ill-minded  neighbor,  be  snatched  without  warning  from  his 
dependent  family,  and  after  being  hurried  through  a  mock 
trial,  be  exposed  as  an  abjuring  heretic  to  the  derision  of 
the  populace  ;  or,  as  contumacious,  be  immured  in  a  loath- 
some dungeon,  or  be  led  out  to  an  ignominious  and  cruel 
death.  Many  such  cases  are  related  by  Foxe,  which  di- 
vide the  heart  between  pity  and  admiration  for  the  sufferer 
and  burning  indignation  against  those  who,  under  the  holy 
name  of  religion,  could  thus  oppress  their  fellow  men. 
Who  would  not  have  thought  that  Sir  Thomas  More,  the 
enlightened,  the  just,  the  humane,  as  he  is  represented, 
would  have  set  himself  as  a  rock  against  this  abuse  of  ir- 
responsible power  ?  On  the  contrary,  he  defends  the 
odious  law  and  its  horrible  abuses,  with  all  the  skill  of 
which  he  is  master.  We  have  no  room  for  his  arguments 
here ;  but  those  who  feel  a  curiosity  to  know,  with  what 
reasons  the  most  enlightened  English  statesman  of  his  time 
could  advocate  a  criminal  process  for  mere  opinion,  which  is 
now  banished  from  the  common  law  of  England  in  the  case  of 
the  worst  felons,  can  find  them  in  his  Apology^  and  his  De- 
bellacion  of  Salem  and  Byzance*  both  written  the  year 

*  These  two  works  belonged  to  a  controversy  between  Sir  Thomas  Moro 
and  an  anonymous  writer,  linown,  however,  to  be  Christopher  Saint  Ger- 
main, an  eminent  jurist  of  the  day,  who,  in  two  treatises,  "  The  Pacifier,^' 
and  "  Salevi  and  Bizance"  had  taken  ground,  though  with  great  temper 
and  judgment,  against  the  tyrannical  course  of  the  clergy  in  regard  to  heresy. 
He  was  a  Catholic,  but  not  a  Romanist;  and  the  quotations  made  from  his 
writings  in  More's  replies,  showhim  to  have  been  a  man  of  equal  humanity 
and  justice,  far   exceeding  in  breadth  and  liberality  of  views  his  moro 


228  THE   ENGLISH   BIBLE. 

after  his  retirement.  It  was  objected  to  him  at  that  time,  that 
the  felon  had  at  least  the  benefit  of  trial  by  jury  ;  to  which 
he  replies,  that  he  never  saw  the  day  yet,  but  that  he  durst 
trust  as  well  the  truth  of  one  judge  as  of  two  juries  !"*   ■ 

But  he  did  jpmething  worse,  if  possible,  than  to  defend 
the  law  ex  ojfficio,  viz.,  advocated  the  violation,  on  the 
ground  of  heresy,  of  safe-conducts  granted  by  the  King. 
Such  had  been  furnished  to  Dr.  Barnes,  to  allow  him  to 
come  for  a  limited  time  into  England.  More  says  of  him, 
(Pref  to  Conf.  p.  343,)  "  And  yet  hath  he  so  demeaned 
himself  since  his  coming  hither,  that  he  hath  clearly  broken 
and  forfeited  his  safe  conduct,  and  lawfully  might  be  burned 
for  his  heresies,  if  we  would  lay  his  heresies  and  his  de- 
meanor since  his  coming  hither  both  twain  unto  his 
charge."  To  this  Frith  replies  (Eng.  Reformers,  vol.  iii. 
p.  422) :  "  This  xpur  saying  is  but  a  vain  gloss ;  for  I  my- 
self did  read  the  safe-conduct  that  came  unto  him,  which  had 
but  only  this  one  condition  annexed  unto  it,  that  if  he  came 
before  the  feast  of  Christmas  next  ensuing,  he  should  have 
free  liberty  to  depart  at  his  pleasure, ^and  this  condition  I 
know  was  fulfilled.  How  then  should  he  forfeit  his  safe- 
conduct  ?  "  Frith  then  turns  the  case  very  adroitly  against 
the  Ex-Chancellor.  "But,"  says  he,  "Mr.  More  hath 
learned  of  his  masters,  our  prelates,  (whose  proctor  he  is) 
to  depress  our  Prince's  prerogative,  that  men  ought  not  to 
keep  any  promise  with  heretics.  As  though  the  King's 
celebrated  contemporary.  They  are  of  great  value,  also,  for  the  light  they 
throw  on  the  prevailing  state  of  opinion  in  the  community.  More  acknowl- 
edged, with  a  sort  of  peevish  candor,  that  they  had  found  great  favor  with 
the  public,  and  that  their  brevity,  and  mildness  of  spirit  were  held  up 
as  models  for  his  own  imitation.  We  cannot  see,  however,  that  in  either 
respect  he  profited  by  t^o  lesson. 

*  Debellacioa,  (Sec,  p.  98S. 


SIR  THOMAS  MORE  AS  CHANCELLOR.        229 

grace  might  not  admit  any  man  to  come  and  go  freely  into 
bis  grace's  realm,  but  that  he  must  have  leave  of  our  pre- 
lates !  For  else  they  might  lay  heresy  against  the  person, 
and  so  slay  him  contrary  to  the  King's  safe-conduct;  which 
thing  all  wise  men  do  know  to  be  prejudicial  to  his  grace's 
prerogative  -royal.  .  .  .  These  words  had  been  very  ex- 
treme, and  worthy  to  have  been  looked  upon,  although 
they  had  been  written  by  some  presumptuous  prelate.  But 
that  a  lay  man,  so  highly  promoted  by  his  Prince,  should 
speak  them,  and  also  cause  them  openly  to  be  published 
among  his  grace's  commons,  to  reject  the  estimation  of  his 
royal  power,  doth,  in  my  mind,  deserve  correction.  Not- 
withstanding I  leave  the  judgment  and  determination  unto 
the  discretion  of  his  grace's  honorable  council." 

When  the  bishops  came  to  offer  him  several  thousand 
pounds  in  gold,  contributed  by  the  clergy  as  an  expression 
of  then-  gratitude  for  the  important  service  rendered  them 
by  his  pen,  he  utterly  refused  it,  and  said  he  would  rather 
it  were  all  thrown  into  the  Thames,  than  that  he  or  his  fam- 
ily should  be  benefitted  by  it  to  the  value  of  a  single  groat. 
He  was  actuated  by  a  far  different,  shall  we  say  far  better, 
motive  than  the  love  of  money.  His  inspiration  was  un- 
mixed religious  zealotism. 

"  For  albeit  they  were,"  he  says,  "  as  indeed  they  were, 
both  good  men  and  honorable,  yet  look  I  for  my  thank 
of  God  that  is  their  better,  and  for  whose  sake  I  take  the 
labor,  and  not  for  theirs."*  He  verily  thought  that  he  was 
doing  God  service. 

This  inspiration  never  failed  him,  nor  have  we  any  evi- 
dence that  the  asperity  of  his  zeal  was  in  any  degree  soft- 
ened by  his  own  bitter  experience  of  persecution  for  opinion's 
•  Apology,  p.  876. 


230  THE    ENGLISH    BIBLE. 

sate.  There  came  a  time,  when  Sir  Thomas  More  found 
that  he  had  a  law  in  his  own  bosom,  of  more  authority  than 
the  behest  of  a  king.  When  Henry  requested  him  to  ac- 
knowledge, against  his  conscience,  the  validity  of  his  mar- 
riage with  Anne  Boleyn,  and  his  supremacy  over  the  church 
in  England,  he  felt  obliged  to  refuse,  though  at  the  forfei- 
ture of  such  honors  as  few  men  have  to  lose,  of  domestic 
ties  peculiarly  endearing,  and  of  life  itself  Yet  even  when 
passing  through  that  bitter  conflict  of  soul,  so  touchingly 
described  in  his  letters  to  his  beloved  daughter  Margaret,* 
feeling  that  without  the  special  help  of  God,  he  should  fail 
in  his  allegiance  to  truth — even  then,  no  remorseful  mem- 
ory seems  to  have  crossed  his  mind  of  those  whom  he  had 
racked,  body  and  soul,  to  compel  them  to  violate  their 
consciences.  When  it  was  urged  upon  him,  at  an  exami- 
nation before  the  king's  council,  that  no  more  was  required 
of  him  than  he  had  required  of  heretics,  and  for  the  refusal 
of  which  they  had  died  at  the  stake  ;  he  replied  that  the 
cases  were  not  parallel,  since  their  consciences  were  in  op- 
position to  the  conscience  of  universal  Christendom,  i.  e.  of 
the  holy  catholic  church,  as  expressed  by  its  constituted 
authorities;!  but  his  was  in  unison  with  it !  Even  in  those 
devotional  treatises  composed  in  prison,  so  breathing  of 
self-abasement,  of  submission  to  the  divine  will,  of  aspiration 
towards  God,  the  name  of  heretic  revives  the  same  hard 
unrelenting  tone  as  he  had  used  in  the  days  of  his  pride 
and  power.  How  was  it  that  the  shades  of  the  murdered 
Bilney  and  Bayfield,  of  Bainham|  and  Tewksbury,  and  of 

*  More'5  English  Works,  Letter  to  Margaret  Roper,  p.  1449. 

■f  Ibid,  1453.  Au  illustration  of  this  principle,  interesting  for  its  bear- 
ings on  a  recent  decision  of  the  Komish  Church,  will  be  found  in  the  Ap- 
pendix. 

J  Bainham,  tvUile  standing  Cy  tho  stake,  spoke  as  follows:    "I  came 


SIR.  THOMAS  MORE  AS  CHANCELLOR.        231 

other  innocent  and  holy  martyrs,  did  not  crowd  his  solitary 
cell,  making  his  heart  quake  with  the  horrors  of  the  world 
to  come,  or  humbling  him  in  dust  and  ashes  as  the  chief 
of  sinners,  because  he  had  persecuted  the  church  of  God! 
Ah,  had  it  been  so,  he  would  have  left  a  fairer  name  to 
posterity. 

When  we  contemplate  Sir  Thomas  More  in  his  patriar- 
chal household,  the  idol  of  that  happy,  virtuous,  accom- 
plished family,  who  owed  all  they  were  to  his  wise  and 
affectionate  training;  as  the  kind  and  charitable  neighbor; 
as  the  incorruptible  statesman;  as  the  martyr  to  con- 
science,— how  can  we  but  admire  and  honor  him?  Would 
that  the  dark  pages  of  his  history  were  not  so  much  more 
numerous  than  the  bright !  Would  that  the  beautiful  spec- 
tacle of  even  those  last  scenes,  were  not  clouded  by  the 
thought  of  what  he  had  done,  as  the  fierce  religious  partizan, 
to  foster  in  his  sovereign  those  towering  notions  of  royal 
prerogative,  and  that  tiger  thirst  for  blood,  of  which  he 
himself  was  the  victim.  Surely,  it  was  no  more  than  a 
just  retribution,  that  he  should  taste  of  "  ?Ae  mildness  of 
that  benign  7iature^''  which  he  had  so  extolled  when  it 
was  directed  against  heretics.  Of  no  man  could  it  ever  be 
said  more  truly :  "  He  ate  of  the  fruit  of  his  own  doing, 
and  was  filled  with  his  own  devices." 

hither,  good  people,  accused  and  condemned  for  an  heretic,  Sir  Thomas 
More  being  my  accuser  and  my  judge.  And  these  be  the  articles  that  I 
die  for,  which  be  a  very  truth  and  grounded  on  God's  word,  and  no  heresy. 
They  be  these  ;  First,  I  s.ay  it  is  lawful  for  every  man  and  woman  to  have 
God's  book  in  their  mother-tongue.  The  second  article  is,  that  the  Bishop 
of  Rome  is  Antichrist,  and  that  I  know  of  no  other  keys  of  heaven's  gates 
but  only  the  preaching  of  the  Law  and  the  Gospel ;  and  that  there  is  no 
other  purgatory  but  the  purgatory  of  Christ's  blood."  Almost  his  last 
words  were  :  "  The  Lord  forgive  Sir  Thomas  More." 


232  THE    ENGLISH    BIBLE. 

With  his  fall,  the  fury  of  persecution  sensibly  abated. 
Not  that  his  great  allies,  the  bishops,  had  lost  in  any  de- 
gree the  persecuting  spirit ;  but  they  had  lost  in  him  the 
dire(3tiiig  mind  and  will.  There  was  no  longer  the  same 
thorough  inquisition  after  heretical  books ;  Bibles  came 
more  and  more  freely  into  England,  and  were  read  with 
far  less  peril  to  life.  In  this  result  we  see  indeed  the  con- 
currence of  other  influences,  long  existing,  but  now  begin- 
ning to  act  as  leading  forces.  But  before  we  pass  to  these, 
one  victim  of  Sir  Thomas  More's  zeal  for  his  church,  de- 
mands- more  particular  notice  ; — John  Frith,  the  friend 
and  coadjutor  of  Tyndale, — whose  untimely  fate  was  chief- 
ly due  to  the  influence  of  the  Lord  Chancellor,  though  not 
consummated  till  after  his  retirement. 


CHAPTER    IX. 


THE  YOUTHFUL  MARTYR. 

The  Kame  of  Frith  has  been  already  mentioned  as  one 
of  those  Oxford  students,  whom  Cardinal  Wolsey,  in  1526, 
attempted  to  cure  of  reading  the  New  Testament,  by  con- 
fining them  several  months  to  a  diet  of  salt  fish,  in  the 
cellar  of  Cardinal's  College.  On  his  liberation  he  fled  to 
the  continent,  where  he  joined  Tyndale,  by  whose  instru- 
mentality he  had  first  been  made  acquainted  with  the 
truth,  and  became  his  assistant  in  translating  the  Bible. 

A  more  harmoniously  developed  character  than  that  of 
young  Frith,  is  seldom  found — combitiing  a  most  genial, 
joyous  temper,  and  a  heart  of  exquisite  sensibility,  with 
that  manly  independence  of  mind,  fearless  courage,  and 
strength  of  purpose,  usually  attributed  to  men  of  sterner 
mould.  His  brilliant  genius  and  ripe  learning  had  caught 
the  attention  of  Cardinal  Wolsey,  no  mean  judge  in  such 
matters,  when  scrutinizing  the  jewels  of  Cambridge,  with 
a  view  to  the  transfer  of  the  choicest  to  his  new  college  at 
Oxford,  which  was  to  be  "  the  most  glorious  in  the  world." 
These  advantages  were  set  off  by  a  fine  person  and  a  singu- 
lar charm  of  manner,  which  seem  to  have  exercised  an 
almost  magic  power  over  his  associates,  and  to  have 
touched  even  the  stony  hearts  of  his  persecutors  with  ad- 


234  THE    ENGLISH   BIBLE. 

miration  and  regret.  Thus  gifted  and  accomplislied,  he 
seemed  marked  out  as  one  of  the  favorites  of  fortune. 
Nothing  but  time,  apparently,  stood  between  him  and  the 
highest  posts  of  literary  and  clerical  distinction. 

But  all  these  things  he  counted  loss,  that  he  might  win 
Christ,  and  make  him  known  to  his  benighted  countr}-- 
men.  The  idea  of  giving  the  Bible  to  the  people,  had 
taken  full  possession  of  his  soul ;  and  he  asked  no  higher 
honor  on  earth  than  to  labor  with  Tyndale — in  exile,  pov- 
erty, and  danger — to  realize  it.  Between  the  two  co- 
workers,  so  different  in  age  and  natural  disposition,  so  like 
in  greatness  of  character  and  in  single-hearted  devotion  to 
the  same  beneficent  end,  there  existed  an  affection  like 
that  of  Paul  and  Timothy.  The  grave  and  earnest  Tyn- 
dale—  a  veteran  in  self-denial,  toil,  and  sorrow,  ever 
bearing  about,  like  one  of  the  old  prophets,  the  burden 
of  his  nation's  sins  and  woes — seems  to  have  garnered  up 
bis  heart  in  this  beloved  son  in  the  Gospel,  and  to  have 
found  the  chief  solace  and  sunshine  of  life  in  his  society. 
Protestantism  is  said  to  be  too  cold,  too  much  concerned 
with  the  reason  and  understanding,  to  furnish  subjects  to 
art.  For  a  pencil  capable  of  interpreting  a  sublime  idea, 
■what  more  eloquent  subject  could  be  asked  than  that  of 
Tyndale  and  Frith,  seated,  with  their  learned  books  around 
them,  in  a  mean  apartment  of  a  Dutch  house,  translating 
the  Bible  for  the  English  race  ! 

In  1532,  Frith  came  secretly  into  England.  The  pre- 
cise object  of  this  hazardous  visit  is  not  mentioned  ;  but 
in  all  probability,  it  was  to  visit  those  "  Congregations  ■' 
of  the  pious,  already  referred  to  as  having  grown  out  of 
the  assemblies  of  the  Lollards,  and  which  must  have  great- 
ly needed  counsel  and  encouragement  in  this  time  of  mer- 


THE  YOUTHFUL  MARTYR.  235 

ciless  persecution,  In  various  parts  of  IMore's  writings, 
we  find  allusions  to  their  secret  meetings,  and  to  tlie  active 
zeal  of  tlieir  itinerant  preachers.  In  the  third  book  of  the 
Dialogue,*  be  speaks  of  having  himself  been  present,  with 
"an  honorable  prelate,"  at  the  examination  of  "one  that  was 
an  ancient  heretic,  and  there  confessed  that  he  had  holden, 
taught,  and  in  divers  countries  spread  about,  almost  all 
the  heresies  that  any  lewd  heretic  holdeth.  .  .  .  He  had 
more  names  than  half  a  leaf  could  hold,  and  dwelled  every 
where  and  no  where.  For  he  walked  about  as  an  apostle 
of  the  devil,  from  shire  to  shire,  and  town  to  town,  through 
the  realm,  and  had  in  every  diocese  a  divers  name.  By 
reason  whereof,  he  did  many  years  much  harm,  or  be  could 
be  found  out."  On  page  239,  he  speaks  of  another  case 
examined  by  himself  and  "  a  great  honorable  estate  of  this 
realm,  before  the  King's  court ;"  the  prisoner  being  charged 
with  having  "  intended,  with  such  other  as  was  himself,  to 
do  great  robbery."  "  Wherein,"  says  More,  "  among 
other  things,  he  confessed  that  he  had  long  holden  divers 
heresies,  which  he  said  that  his  brother,  being  clerk  of  a 
church,  had  taught  both  his  father  and  him.  And  I 
promise  you,  those  heresies  were  of  an  height.  Then  he 
showed  us  what  other  cunning  masters  of  that  school  he 
had  heard  read,  and  specially  in  a  place  which  he  named 
us  in  London,  where  he  said  that  such  heretics  were  wont 
to  resort  to  their  readings  in  a  chamber  at  midnight. 
And  when  we  asked  him  the  names  of  them  that  were  wont 
to  haunt  those  midnight  lectures,  he  rehearsed  us  divers. 
....  And  he  told  us  of  some  that  were  convicted,  and 
some  that  were  fled,  and  some  that  were  yet  at  that  time 
dwelling  still  in  the  town."     Again,  in  the  preface  to  t^je 

♦  Page  213. 


2B6  THE   ENGLISH   BIBLE. 

Confutation,  (l.'i32,)  in  the  account  of  Thomas  Hutton's 
conviction,  he  saj:s  :  "  First,  ye  shall  understand  that  he 
■was  a  priest ;  and  falling  to  Luther's  sect,  and  after  that 
to  the  sect  of  frere  Huskin  and  Zuinglius,  cast  oif  matins 
and  mass,  and  all  divine  service,  and  so  became  an  apostle 
sent  to  and  fro  between  our  English  heretics  beyond  the 
sea,  and  such  as  were  here  at  home.  Now  happened  it  so, 
that  after  he  had  visited  here  his  holy  congregations^  in 
divers  corners  and  lurkes  lanes,  and  comforted  them  in 
the  Lord  to  stand  stiff  with  the  devil  in  their  errors  and 
heresies,  as  he  was  going  back  again  at  Graves  End,  God 
considering  the  great  labor  that  he  liad  taken  already,  and 
determining  to  bring  his  business  to  its  well-deserved  end, 
gave  him  suddenly  such  a  favor,  and  so  great  a  grace  in 
the  visage,  that  every  man  that  beheld  him  took  him  for 
a  thief  .  .  .  Having  searched  him,  they  found  certain  let- 
ters secretly  conveyed  in  his  coat,  written  from  evangelical 
brethren  here  unto  the  evangelical  heretics  beyond  the  sea  '* 

The  most  noted  among  these  little  communities,  seems  to 
have  been  the  one  mentioned  by  Foxe  in  his  account  of 
Bainham.  Broken  down  by  the  cruel  tortures  inflicted  on 
him  by  Sir  Thomas  More,  that  good  man  had  at  first  ab- 
jured; but  soon  after  again  publicly  avowed  his  faith,  and 
submitted  to  death  with  great  constancy  and  meekness. 
"  He  was,"  says  Foxe,  "  never  quiet  in  mind  and  conscience 
until  the  time  he  had  uttered  his  fall  to  all  his  acquaint, 
ance,  and  asked  God  and  the  world  forgiveness,  before  the 
congregation  in  those  days  in  a  warehouse  in  Bow  Lane?'' 
After  this  he  made  a  still  more  public  confession  in  St. 
Austin's  church,  in  presence  of  priests  and  people. 

Frith,  though  now  only  twenty-eight  years  of  age,  had 
already  made  himself  known  and  hated  by  the  English 


THE  YOUTHFUL  MARTYR.  237 

prelates.  The  previous  year  he  had  published  a  treatise 
on  Purgatory,  in  which  he  combatted,  with  great  spirit  and 
conclusiveness,  the  opinions  of  Sir  Thomas  More  *  as  well 
as  of  his  brother-in-law  Rastell,  and  the  Bishop  of  Roches- 
ter, who  had  also  published  on  the  subject.  This  horrible 
doctrine  of  the^  Romish  church,  which  so  libelled  the  jus- 
tice, mercy,  and  truth  of  God,  and  so  disparaged  the  sac- 
rifice of  Christ,  was  inseparably  identified  with  the  author- 
ity and  the  gains  of  the  priesthood.  Its  power  over  the 
mind  of  Sir  Thomas  More  was  intimately  connected  with 
his  view  of  the  merit  of  human  works. f  -  In  1529  appeared 
his  elaborate  defence  of  purgatory,  entitled  "  The  Suppli- 
cation of  Souls  ;"  in  which  he  took  the  ground  that,  "  both 
is  purgatory  proved  from  Scripture,  and  the  Catholic  faith 
of  Christ's  church  were  sufficient  to  make  men  sure  there- 
of, albeit  there  were  not  in  all  Scripture  one  text  for  it, 
and  divers  that  seemed  against  it."|  His  chief  object  at 
this  time,  however,  was  to  prove  its  consonance  to  Scrip- 
ture. Rochester  had  previously  attempted  to  sustain  it 
on  the  authority  of  the  fathers,  and  Rastell,  soon  after,  by 
that  of  natural  reason. 

In  the  pi-eface  to  his  answer  to  these  treatises.  Frith 
apologizes  for  the  seeming  presumption  of  "  one  so  young 
and  of  so  small  learning,"  in  daring  to  argue  against  men, 
two  of  whom,  "  to  wit,  my  lord  of  Rochester  and  Sir 
Thomas  More,  are  ancient  men,  both  of  great  wit  and  dig- 
nity."    But  he  desires  his  readers  to  heed  rather  what  is 

*  Supplication  of  Souls,  published  1529. 

■f"  Thus  while  in  prison,  he  expressed  to  his  daughter  the  hope  that  his  suf- 
fering for  conscience's  sake  might,  in  connection  with  the  Saviour's  merits, 
"  serve  for  release  of  my  pain  in  purgatory,  and  over  that,  for  some  in- 
crease of  reward  in  heaven."     Margaret  Roper's  Lelier,  p.  1442. 

t  Sup.  of  Souls,  352. 


238  THE    ENGLISH    BIBLE. 

said  than  wlio  says  it,  and  to  remember  that  "  God,  who  is 
bound  to  no  age  nor  person,  can  inspire  when  he  will  and 
where  he  will."  Nor  does  he  ask  them  to  admit  his  ar- 
guments except  they  are  sustained  by  Scripture.  "  Lay 
them,"  he  says,  ''  to  the  touchstone,  and  try  them  by  God's 
word.  If  they  be  found  false  and  counterfeit,  then  damn  * 
[condemn]  them,  and  I  shall  also  revoke  them  with  all  my 
heart;  but  if  the  Scripture  allow  them,  that  you  cannot 
den}'  but  it  is  so,  then  resist  not  the  doctrine  of  God." 

The  bold  style  and  conclusive  reasoning  of  this  young 
champion  of  the  truth,  was  very  offensive  to  Sir  Thomas 
More ;  and  we  cannot  but  suspect  in  the  virulence  with 
which  he  afterwards  pursued  him,  a  large  infusion  of 
wounded  vanity  as  well  as  of  party  zeal.  In  the  Preface 
to  his  Confutation,  put  forth  not  long  before  Frith's  visit 
to  England,  the  Lord  Chancellor  boasted  that,  so  soon  as 
he  shall  have  demolished  Tyndale,  he  purposes  "  to  touch 
every  part  of  young  father  Frith's  fresh  painted  book  ;  and 
so  shall  I  pluck  of,  I  trust,  the  most  glorious  feathers  of 
his  peacock's  tail,  that  I  shall  leave  him  if  he  have  wit 
and  grace,  a  little  less  liking  to  himself  than  he  seemeth 
now  to  have,  which  thing  hath  made  him  to  stand  not  a 
little  in  his  own  light."  But  Sir  Thomas  was  not  so  sure 
of  his  arguments,  it  appears,  but  that  he  was  eager  at  the 
first  opportunity,  to  stop  the  mouth  of  his  youthful  antag- 
onist by  force.  In  the  Prologue  to  Frith's  second  book 
against  Rastell,  the  writer  (probably  Tyndale,)  informs  us 
that  "  More  and  Rochester  thought  foul  scorn  that  a  young 
man  of  small  reputation  should  take  upon  him,  so  clean 
contrary  to  their  opinion,  to  write  against  them,  and  (to  be 

*  We  find  this  word  used  continually  in  the  old  writers,  evidently  with  no 
stronger  meaning  than  that  now  attached  to  condemn. 


THE    YOUTHFUL    MARTYR.  239 

short,)  took  the  matter  so  grievously,  that  thoy  could  never 
be  at  quiet  in  their  stomachs  until  they  had  drunk  his 
blood." 

From  the  account  given  with  such  delightful  naivete,  by 
the  old  Martyrologist,  it  is  evident   that  Frith  made  his 
advent  into  his  -native  land  in  a  state  of  genuine  apostolic 
poverty.     "  And  he  being  at  Reading,  it  happened  that  he 
was  then  taken   as   a  vagabond,  and   brought  to  examina- 
tion, where  the  simple  man,  loth  to  utter  himself  what  he 
was,  and  unacquainted  with   their  manner  of  examination, 
and  they  greatly  offended  with  him,  committed  him  to  the 
stocks,  where   he  had  sitten  a  long  time   and  was   almost 
pined  with   hunger,  and   would  not  for  all  that   declare 
what  he  was.     At  last  he  desired  that  the  schoolmaster  of 
the  town  might  be  brought  unto  him,  which  was   at  that 
time   one  Leonard  Coxe,  a  man  very  well  learned.     As 
soon  as  he  came  unto  him,  Frith  by  and  by  in  the  Latin 
tongue  began  to  bewail  his  captivity.     The  schoolmaster 
being  overcome  with  his  eloquence,  did  not  only  take  pity 
and  compassion  upon  him,  but  also  began  to  love  and  em- 
brace such  an  excellent  wit  and   disposition  unlooked  for 
especially  in  such  a  state  of  misery.     Afterwards,  they  con- 
ferring more   together  upon  many  things,  as   touching  the 
Universities,   schools,    and    tongues,   fell  from   the    Latin 
tongue  to  the  Greek,  wherein  Frith  did  so  inflame  the  love 
of  the  said  schoolmaster  towards  him,  that  he  brought  him 
into    a   marvellous    admiration,    especially   when    as    the 
schoolmaster  heard  him    so  promptly  by  heart   rehearse 
Homer's  verses  out  of  his  first  book  of  Iliad.      Whereupon 
the  schoolmaster  went  with  all  speed  unto  the  magistrates 
grievously  complaining  of  the  injury  which  they  did  show 
unto  so  excellent   and   innocent   a  young  man ;  and  so 


240  THE    ENGLISH    BIBLE. 

through  the  help  of  the  said  schoolmaster,  the  said  Frith 
was  freely  set  at  liberty." 

Foxe  reports  from  hearsay,  that  Frith  had  come  over 
with  the  special  object  of  obtaining  pecuniary  assistance 
from  the  prior  of  Reading ;  but  there  is  no  evidence  of 
this  in  the  story  as  he  relates  it.  Taking  leave  of  the  wor- 
thy schoolmaster,  Frith  now  made  his  way  with  all  possible 
secrecy  from  place  to  place,  striving  to  confirm  the  faith 
and  hope  of  his  brethren,  and  realizing  in  his  christian  com- 
munion with  them,  the  longing  expressed  by  the  Apostle : 
"  That  we  may  be  comforted  together  by  the  mutual  faith 
of  both  you  and  me."  From  the  letter  afterwards  ad- 
dressed to  them  from  prison,  it  appears  that  he  had  found 
these  humble  disciples  not  only  stronger  in  numbers,  but 
farther  advanced  in  spiritual  knowledge  and  the  life  of  god- 
liness than  he  had  anticipated ;  and  that  he  recognized  their 
patience,  zeal,  and  love,  as  the  genuine  fruits  of  that  divine 
woK-D  for  the  possession  of  which  they  risked  all  that  was 
dear  on  earth. 

But  his  mission  was  soon  brought  to  an  end.  "  Albeit," 
says  Foxe,  "  his  safety  continued  not  long,  through  the  great 
hatred  and  deadly  pursuit  of  Sir  Thomas  More,  who  at  that 
time  being  Chancellor  of  England,  persecuted  him  both  by 
land  and  sea,  besetting  all  the  ways,  havens,  and  ports;  yea, 
and  promising  great  rewards  if  any  man  would  bring  him  any 
news  or  tidings  of  him.  Thus  Frith,  being  on  every  part 
beset  with  troubles,  not  knowing  which  way  to  turn  him, 
sought  for  some. place  to  hide  him  in;  and  so,  flying  from 
one  place  to  another,  and  often  changing  both  his  garments 
and  place,  yet  could  he  be  in  safety  in  no  place,  no,  not 
long  amongst  his  very  friends.  So  that  at  the  last,  he 
coming  to  a  port  town  in  Essex,  called  Milton  shore,  and 


THE    YOUTHFUL    MARTYR.  241 

tliorc  purposing  to  have  taken  plaipping  to  have  passed 
over  into  Flanders,  was  betrayed  and  brought  back  bound 
again,  and  laid  in  the  tower  of  Loudon." 

From  prison  he  wrote  the  letter  before  referred  to, 
"  Unto  the  faithful  followers  of  Christ's  Gospel."  Consid- 
ering the  age  and  the  circumstances  of  the  writer,  it  must 
be  regarded  as  one  of  the  most  remarkable  on  record : — 

"  It  cannot  be  expressed,  dearly  beloved  in  the  Lord,  what  joy  and  com- 
fort it  is  to  my  heart,  to  perceive  how  the  word  of  God  hath  wrought,  and 
continually  workcth  among  you  ;  so  that  I  find  no  small  number  walking 
in  the  ways  of  the  Lord,  according  as  he  gave  us  commandment,  willing 
that  we  should  love  one  another  as  he  loved  us.  Now  have  I  experience  of 
the  faith  which  is  in  you,  and  can  testify  that  it  is  without  simulation  ;  that 
ye  love  not  in  word  and  tongue  only,  but  in  work  and  verity. 

"  What  can  be  more  trial  of  a  faithful  heart  than  to  adventure,  not  only 
to  aid  and  succor  by  the  means  of  others,  which  without  danger  may  not  be 
admitted  unto  us,  but  also  personally  to  visit  the  poor  oppressed,  and  see 
that  nothing  be  lacking  unto  them,  but  that  they  have  both  ghostly  comfort 
and  bodily  sustenance,  notwithstanding  the  strait  inhibition  and  terrible 
menacing  of  these  worldly  rulers  ;  even  ready  to  abide  the  extreme  jeopar- 
dies that  tyrants  can  imagine  1 

"  This  is  an  evidence  that  you  have  prepared  yourselves  to  the  cross  of 
Christ,  This  is  an  evidence  that  ye  have  cast  your  accounts,  and  have 
wherewith  to  finish  the  tgjver  which  ye  have  begun  to  build-  And  I  doubt 
not  but  that  He,  which  hath  begun  to  work  in  you,  shall  for  his  glory  accom- 
plish the  same,  even  unto  the  coming  of  the  Lord,  which  shall  give  unto 
every  man  according  to  his  deeds.  And  albeit  God,  of  his  secret  judgments, 
for  a  time  keep  the  rod  from  some  of  them  that  ensue  his  steps ;  yet  let 
them  surely  reckon  upon  it,  for  there  is  no  doubt  but  all  which  will  devout- 
ly live  in  Christ,  must  suffer  persecution  ;  for  '  whom  the  Lord  loveth  he 
correcteth,  and  scourgeth  every  child  that  he  receiveth.'  For  what  child  is 
that  whom  the  Father  chastiseth  not  1 

"  Of  these  things,  God  had  given  me  the  speculation  before  ;  and  now  it 
hath  pleased  him  to  put  them  in  use  and  practise  upon  mc.  I  ever  thought, 
and  yet  do  think,  that  to  walk  after  God's  word  would  cost  me  my  life,  at 
one  time  or  another.  And  albeit  that  the  King's  Grace  should  take  me  into 
his  favor,  and  not  to  suffer  the  bloody  Edomites  to  have  their  pleasure  upon 
me  ;  yet  will  I  not  think  that  I  am  escaped,  but  that  God  hath  only  deferred 

11 


242  THE    ENGLISH   BIBLE. 

it  for  a  season,  to  the  intent  that  I  should  work  somewhat  that  he  hath  ap- 
pointed me  to  do,  and  so  to  use  me  unto  his  glory. 

"  And  I  beseech  all  the  followers  of  Christ  to  arm  themselves  with  the 
same  supposition,  marking  themselves  Avith  the  sign  of  the  cross ;  not  from 
the  cross,  as  the  superstitious  multitude  do,  but  rather  to  the  cross,  in  token 
that  they  be  ever  ready,  willingly  to  receive  the  cross,  when  it  shall  please 
God  to  lay  it  upon  them.  The  day  that  it  cometh  not  count  it  clear  won, 
giving  thanks  to  the  Lord  which  hath  kept  it  from  you ;  and  then  when  it 
cometh,  it  shall  nothing  dismay  you  ;  for  it  is  no  new  thing,  but  even  that 
which  ye  have  continually  looked  for. 

"  And  doubt  not  but  that  God,  which  is  faithful,  shall  not  suffer  you  to  be 
tempted  above  that  which  ye  are  able  to  bear,  but  shall  ever  send  some  oc- 
casion, by  the  which  ye  shall  stand  steadfast ;  for  either  he  shall  blind  the 
eyes  of  your  enemies,  and  diminish  their  tyrannous  power,  or  else  when  he 
hath  suffered  them  to  do  their  best,  and  that  the  dragon  hath  cast  a  whole 
flood  of  waters  after  you,  he  shall  cause  even  the  very  earth  to  open  her 
mouth  and  swallow  them  up.  So  faithful  is  he,  and  careful  to  ease  us,  what 
time  the  vexation  should  be  too  heavy  for  us. 

"  He  shall  send  a  Joseph  before  you  against  ye  shall  come  into  Egypt . 
yoa,  ho  shall  so  provide  for  you,  that  ye  shall  have  an  hundred  fathers  for 
ono  ;  an  hundred  mothers  for  one  ;  an  hundred  houses  for  one  ;  and  that  in 
this  life,  as  I  have  proved  by  experience ;  and  after  this  life,  everlastiBij 
joy  with  Chiist  our  Saviour-." 

Sucli  were  tlie  "  poisonous  and  seditious  sentiments,"  ol 
which  the  Lord  Chancellor  was  so  anxious  to  purge  the 
realm,  that  if  they  must  follow  in  the  train  of  the  Bible^ 
the  Bible  must  be  banished  with  them  ! 

The  good  Tyndale,  at  his  Golitary  labor  in  a  foreign 
land,  must  have  felt  not  a  little  solicitude  for  his  beloved 
young  brother,  exposed  as  he  knew  to  such  daily  and 
hourly  peril.  The  following  extracts  from  his  correspon- 
dence with  Frith,  permit  us  a  familiar  glance  into  his 
great  and  gentle  soul ;  and  we  no  longer  wonder  that  dis- 
parity of  years  was  no  barrier  between  these  two  congenial 
spirits.  The  letter  from  which  we  first  quote,  was  written 
before  he  had  heard  of  his  friend's  imprisonment.     Tha 


THE    YOUTHFUL    MARTYR.  243 

counsel  it  contains  in  reference  to  Fritli's  preaching,  and 
the  direction  of  his  influence  in  general,  sufficiently  indi- 
cates the  main  object  of  his  visit  to  England  : — 

"  The  grace  of  our  Saviour  Jesus,  Ms  patience,  meekness,  humbjeness, 
circumspection,  and  wisdom  be  with  your  heart,  amen !  Dearly  beloved 
brother,  mine  heart's  desire  in  our  Saviour  Jesus  is,  that  you  arm  yourself 
with  patience,  and  be  cool,  sober  wise,  and  circumspect ;  and  that  you  keep 
you  alow  by  the  ground,  avoiding  high  questions  that  pass  the  common  ca- 
pacity. But  expound  the  law  truly,  and  open  the  veil  of  Moses,  to  condemn 
all  flesh,  and  prove  all  men  sinners,  and  all  deeds  under  the  law,  before 
mercy  have  taken  away  the  condemnation  thereof,  to  be  sin  and  damnable. 
And  then,  as  a  faithful  minister,  set  abroach  the  mercy  of  our  Lord  Jesus, 
and  let  the  wounded  consciences  drink  of  the  water  of  him.  Then  shall  your 
preaching  be  with  power,  and  not  as  the  doctrine  of  the  hypocrites,  and  the 
Spirit  of  God  shall  work  with  you,  and  all  consciences  shall  bear  record 
unto  you,  and  feel  that  it  is  so.  And  all  doctrine  that  casteth  a  mist  on 
these  two,  to  shadow  and  hide  them — I  mean  the  law  of  God  and  the  mercy 
of  Christ — that  resist  with  all  your  power.  Sacraments  without  signification 
refuse.  If  they  put  significations  to  them,  receive  them  if  you  see  it  may 
help,  though  it  be  not  necessary. 

"  I  guessed  long  ago  that  God  would  send  a  dazing  into  the  head  of  the 
Spirituality,  to  catch  themselves  in  their  own  subtilty ;  and  I  trust  it  is 
come  to  pass.  And  now,  methinketh  I  smell  a  Council  to  be  taken,  little 
for  their  profits,  in  time  to  come.  But  you  must  understand  that  it  is  not  of 
a  pure  heart,  and  for  love  of  the  truth,  but  to  avenge  themselves,  and  to  eat 
the  harlot's  flesh,  and  to  suck  the  marrow  of  her  bones.  Wherefore,  cleave 
fast  to  the  rock  of  the  help  of  God,  and  commit  the  end  of  all  things  to  him  ; 
and  if  God  shall  call  you,  that  you  may  then  use  the  wisdom  of  the  world, 
as  far  as  you  perceive  the  glory  of  God  may  come  thereof,  refuse  it  not ;  and 
ever  among  thrust  in,  that  the  Scripture  may  be  in  the  mother  tongue,  and 
learning  set  up  in  the  Universities.  But  and  if  ought  be  required  contrary 
to  the  glory  of  God  and  his  Christ,  then  stand  fast  and  commit  yourself  to 
God,  and  be  not  overcome  of  men's  persuasions,  which  haply  shall  say,  we 
see  no  other  way  to  bring  in  the  truth. 

"  Brother  Jacob,*  beloved  of  ray  heart,  there  liveth  not  in  whom  I  have 
so  good  hope  and  trust,  and  in  whom  mine  heart  rejoiceth  and  my  soul  eom- 
forteth  herself,  as  in  you  :  not  the  thousandth  part  so  much  for  your  learn- 
ing, and  what  other  gifts  else  you  have,  as  that  you  will  creep  alow  by  the 
ground,  and  walk  in  those  things  that  the  conscience  may  feel,  and  not  in 

*  A  feigned  nani3,  to  avoid  exposure. 


244  THE    ENGLISH    BIBLE. 

the  imaginations  of  the  brain ;  in  fear,  and  not  in  boldness ;  in  open  necessa- 
ry things,  and  not  to  pronounce  or  define  of  hid  secrets,  or  things  that  neither 
help  nor  hinder,  whether  they  be  so  or  no ;  in  unity,  and  not  in  seditious 
opinions — insomuch,  that  if  you  be  sure  you  know ;  yet  in  things  that  may 
abide  leisure,  you  wiU  defer,  or  say,  methinks  the  text  requireth  this  sense 
or  imderstanding ;  yea,  and  if  you  be  sure  that  your  part  be  good,  and  ano- 
ther hold  the  contrary,  yet  if  it  be  a  thing  that  maketh  no  matter,  you  will 
laugh  and  let  it  pass,  and  refer  the  thing  to  other  men,  and  stick  you  stiffly 
and  stubbornly  in  earnest  and  necessary  things.* 

"  And  I  trust  you  be  persuaded  even  so  of  me.  For  I  call  God  to  record, 
against  the  day  we  shall  appear  before  our  Lord  Jesus  to  give  a  reckoning 
of  our  doings,  that  I  never  altered  one  syllable  of  God's  Word  against  my 
conscience,  (as  Sir  Thomas  More  had  uasinuated,)  nor  would  this  day  if  all 
that  is  in  the  earth — whether  it  be  pleasure,  honor,  or  riches — might  be 
given  me.  Moreover,  I  take  God  to  record  to  my  conscience,  that  I  desire 
of  God  to  myself  in  this  world,  no  more  than  that  (liberty  ?)  without  which 
I  cannot  keep  his  laws. 

,  "  Finally,  if  there  were  in  me  any  gift  that  could  help  at  hand,  and  aid 
you,  if  need  required,  I  promise  you  I  would  not  be  far  off,  and  commit  the 
end  to  God.  My  soul  is  not  faint,  though  my  body  be  weary.  But  God 
hath  made  me  evil-favored  in  this  world,  and  without  grace  in  the  sight  of 
men,  speechless  and  rude,  duU  and  slow-witted.  Your  part  shall  be  to  sup- 
ply that  which  lacketh  in  me  ;  remembering,  that  as  lowliness  of  heart  shall 
make  you  high  with  God,  even  so  meekness  of  words  shall  make  you  sink 
Into  the  hearts  of  men.  Nature  giveth  age  authority,  but  meekness  is  the 
glory  of  youth,  and  giveth  them  honor.  Abimdance  of  love  maketh  me  ex- 
ce.ed  in  babbling." 

The  affecting  and  admirable  expression  of  Christian  love 
and  fidelity  which  follows,  was  written  after  hearing  of  the 
imprisonment  of  Frith  in  the  Tower  : 

"  The  grace  and  peace  of  God  our  Father  and  of  Jesus  Christ  our  Lord 
be  with  you,  Amen.  Dearly  beloved  brother  John !  I  have  heard  say 
how  the  hypocrites,  now  that  they  have  overcome  that  great  busuiess  which 

*  The  excellent  sense  and  Christian  feeling  of  this  advice,  is  worthy  of  the 
character  of  Tyndale.  Both  he  and  Frith  believed  Luther's  view  of  the  Euchar* 
ist  to  be  false,  and  as  such,  prejudicial ;  but  it  was  essentially  different  from  the 
Popish  doctrine,  which  exalts  it  into  a  sacrifice  and  an  object  of  worship.  The 
discussion  of  this  and  similar  points,  Tyndale  therefore  wisely  desired  to  post- 
pone to  a  more  quiet  time,  concentrating,  at  present,  the  energies  of  all  the 
friends  of  truth  on  such  as  were  essential. 


THE  YOUTHFUL  MARTYR.  245 

letted  them  or  at  the  least  way,  have  brought  it  to  a  stay,  they  return  to 
their  own  nature  again.  The  will  of  God  be  fulfilled,  and  that  which  lie 
hath  ordained  to  be,  ero  the  world  was  made :  that  come,  and  his  glory 
reign  over  all ! 

"  Dearly  beloved,  however  the  matte?  be,  commit  yourself  wholly  and 
only  unto  your  most  loving  Father  and  rcsst  kind  Lord,  and  fear  not  mea 
that  threat,  not  trust  men  that  speak  iiir ;  but  trust  him  that  is  true  of 
promise,  and  able  to  make  His  word  good.  Your  cause  is  Christ's  gospel,  a 
light  that  must  be  fed  with  the  blood  of  faith.  The  lamp  must  be  dressed 
daily,  and  that  oil  poured  in  every  evening  and  morning,  that  the  light  go 
not  out.  Though  we  be  sinners,  yet  is  the  cause  right.  If,  when  we  bo 
buffetted  for  well-doing,  we  suffer  patiently  and  endure,  that  is  acceptable  to 
God  ;  for  to  that  end  we  are  called.  For  Christ  also  suffered  for  us,  leaving 
us  an  example  that  we  should  foUow  his  steps  who  did  no  sin.  Hereby  hava 
we  perceived  love,  that  he  laid  down  his  life  for  us ;  therefore  we  ought  also 
to  lay  down  our  lives  for  the  brethren.  Rejoice  and  be  glad,  for  great  is 
your  revi^ard  in  heaven.  For  we  suffer  with  Him  that  we  may  also  bo  glori- 
fied with  Him ;  who  shall  change  our  vile  body,  that  'it  may  be  fashioned 
like  unto  His  glorious  body,  according  to  the  working,  whereby  He  is  abla 
even  to  subject  all  things  unto  Him. 

"  Dearly  beloved,  be  of  good  courage,  and  comfort  your  soul  with  the 
hope  of  this  high  reward,  and  bear  the  image  of  Christ  ia  your  mortal  body, 
that  it  may,  at  his  coming,  be  made  like  to  his  immortal ;  and  follow  the  ex- 
ample of  all  your  other  dear  brethren,  which  chose  to  suffer  in  hope  of  a 
better  resurrection.  Keep  your  conscience  pure  and  undefiled,  and  say 
against  that,  nothing.  Stick  at  necessary  thmgs,  and  remember  the  blas- 
phemies of  the  enemies  of  Christ,  saying,  they  find  none  but  that  will  abjure 
rather  than  suffer  the  extremity.  Moreover  the  death  of  them  that  come 
again,  after  they  have  once  denied,  though  it  be  accepted  with  God,  and  all 
that  believe,  yet  it  is  not  glorious,  for  the  hypocrites  say,  '  he  must  needs 
die  ;  denying  (then)  helpeth  not.  But  might  it  have  holpen,  they  would 
have  denied  five  hundi-ed  times,  but  seeing  it  would  not  help  them,  there- 
fore of  pure  pride  and  malice  together,  they  speak  with  their  mouths,  that 
their  conscience  knoweth  false.' 

"If  you  give  yourself,  cast  yourself,  yield  yourself,  commit  yourself, 
•wholly  and  only,  to  your  loving  Father ;  then  shall  His  power  be  in  you, 
and  make  you  strong,  and  that  so  strong,  that  you  shall  feel  no  pain,  which 
should  be  to  another  present  death  ;  and  his  Spirit  shall  speak  m  you,  and 
teach  you  what  to  answer,  according  to  His  promise.  He  shall  set  out  His 
truth  by  you,  wonderfully,  and  work  for  /ou,  above  all  that  your  heart 


246  THE    ENGLISH    BIBLE, 

can  imagine :  yea,  and  you  are  not  yet  dead,  though  the  hypocrites  all,  with 
all  that  they  can  make,  have  sworn  your  death. 

"  'Z7rea  salus  victis,  nullam  sperare  salutem.'  [The  only  safety  for  the 
vanquished  is  not  to  hope  for  safety.]  To  look  for  no  man's  help  bringeth 
the  help  of  God,  to  them  that  seem  to  be  overcome  in  the  eyes  of  the 
hypocrites.  Tea,  it  shall  make  God  to  carry  you  through  thick  and  thin,  for 
His  truth's  sake,  in  spite  of  all  the  enemies  of  His  truth.  There  falleth  not 
a  hair  till  his  hour  be  come ;  and  when  his  hour  is  come,  necessity  carrieth 
us  hence,  though  we  be  not  willing.  But  Lf  we  be  willing,  then  have  we  a 
reward  and  thanks. 

"  Fear  not  the  threatening,  therefore,  neither  be  overcome  of  sweet  words : 
with  which  twain  the  hypocrites  will  assail  you.  Neither  let  the  persua- 
sions of  worldly  wisdom  bear  rule  in  your  heart :  No,  though  they  be  your 
friends  that  counsel  you.  Let  Bilney  be  a  wjirning  to  you.  Let  not  their 
Tisor  beguile  your  eyes.  Let  not  your  body  faint.  He  that  endureth  to  the 
end  shall  be  saved.  If  the  pain  bo  above  your  strength,  remember — 
'  whatsoever  ye  shall  ask  in  my  name,  I  will  give  it  you,' — and  pray  to 
your  Father,  in  that  name,  and  he  shall  ease  your  pain  or  shorten  it. 
The  Lord  of  peace,  of  hope,  and  of  faith,  be  with  you.  Amen.  William 
Tyndale." 

He  then  adds  the  following  postscript :  "  Two  have  suffered  in  Antwerp, 
unto  the  great  glory  of  the  Gospel ;  four  at  Rysels  in  Flanders,  and  at  Lucca 
hath  there  one  at  least,  and  all  the  same  day.  At  Roane  (Rouen)  in  Franco 
they  persecute,  and  at  Paris  are  five  doctors  taken  for  the  Gospel.  See,  you 
are  not  alone  ;  be  cheerful,  and  remember,  that  among  the  hard-hearted  in 
England,  there  is  a  number  reserved  by  grace ;  for  whose  sakes,  if  need  be, 
you  must  be  ready  to  suffer.  Sir,  if  you  may  write,  how  short  soever  it  be, 
forget  X  not,  that  we  may  know  how  it  goeth  with  you,  for  our  heart's  ease. 
The  Lord  be  yet  again  with  you,  with  all  his  plenteousness,  and  fill  you 
that  may  flow  over.  If  when  you  have  read  this,  you  may  send  it  to  Adrian, 
do,  I  pray  you,  that  he  may  know  how  that  our  heart  is  with  you. 

"  Sir,  your  wife  is  well  content  with  the  will  of  God,  and  would  not,  f»r 
her  sake,  have  the  glory  of  God  hindered.     William  Tyndale."* 

Was  ever  nobler  friendship  than  this  !  A  friendship  which 

*  These  two  lines  are  all  that  we  know  of  the  wife  of  John  Frith,  but  they  re- 
veal a  spirit  as  noble  and  devoted  as  his  own.  Contrast  with  this  message  the 
persevering  efforts  of  Margaret  Roper  [see  Letters  at  the  end  of  Sir  Thomas 
More's  Eng.  Works,]  to  persuade  her  father  to  accommodate  his  conscience  to 
the  necessities  of  the  time,  and  we  mttst  feel  that,  after  all,  the  piety  and  the 
filial  affection  of  this  distinguished  woman  lacked  the  highest  moral  element 


THE    YOUTHFUL    MARTYR.  247 

could  strengthen  one  "  best  beloved,"  to  endure  patiently, 
and,  if  need  be,  to  die  worthily,  for  the  honor  of  God;  and 
could  repress  every  expression  of  personal  sorrow  that 
might  tend  to  unnerve  his  resolution.  Dear  as  the  life  of 
Frith  was  to  Tyndale,  there  was  something  dearer  yet,  his 
Christian  honor  his  peace  of  conscience,  his  crown  from 
the  righteous  Judge  ;  above  all,  that  which  was  dearer  to 
them  both  than  aught  else  in  earth  or  heaven,  the  glory  of 
Christ. 

It  is  noticeable,  how  imbued  are  the  letters  both  of  Frith 
and  Tyndale  with  the  forms  of  Scripture  thought,  as  if 
only  thus  could  they  find  adequate  expression  for  the  emo- 
tions struggling  in  their  breasts  at  such  an  hour.  Was  it 
not,  indeed,  a  state  of  soul  kindred  to  that  which  harmonized 
prophets  and  apostles  to  the  mind  of  God,  and  made  them 
meet  vessels  for  the  communication  of  HIS  thoughts ! 
So  glowed  the  soul  of  Paul,  when  he  exhorted  his  breth- 
ren in  Christ  to  steadfastness  even  unto  death ;  and  when 
he  cried  to  his  beloved  Timothy  :  Let  no  man  take  thy 
crown  !  Most  interesting  too  is  it  to  recognize  in  these  Scrip- 
ture expressions,  so  near  a  likeness  to  t;he  language  of  our 
common  version, — an  added  proof  how  much  we  are  in- 
debted for  its  sublimely  simple,  nervous,  beautiful  phrase- 
ology, to  the  agency  of  that  great  mind,  more  than  three 
hundred  years  ago. 

The  conduct  of  Frith  while  imprisoned  in  the  Tower, 
was  fully  worthy  of  tha  principles  and  sentiments  thus 
expressed.  His  Christian  fortitude  and  cheerfulness  seems 
never  to  have  forsaken  him  ;  and  though  denied  the  use  of 
books,  pen  and  paper,  he  still  contrived,  by  the  aid  of 
his  friends,  to  speak  to  both  prelates  and  people  through 
the  press.     One  of  the  treatises  sent  forth  from  his  prison 


248  THE    ENGLISH    BIBLE. 

■was  a  rejoinder  to  Rastell  on  the  subject  of  Purgatory, 
and  exhibits  the  same  firmness  of  position,  the  same  buoy- 
ancy and  yet  kindness  of  manner,  which  characterized  his 
previous  writings.  Kastell  had  compared  their  controver- 
sy to  play  at  tennis,  and  threatened  to  defeat  him  by  toss- 
ing back  his  own  ball ;  that  is,  by  turning  against  him  the 
very  Scriptures  he  had  adduced  in  his  support.  Frith 
closes  his  reply  with  the  following  cheerful  allusion  to 
that  boast,  and  to  the  circumstances  under  which  he  sus- 
tains his  part  in  the  game  : 

"  Thus  have  I  answered  to  as  much  of  Rastell's  treatise 
as  I  could  get ;  if  there  be  any  more  which  may  come  to 
my  hands,  I  shall  do  my  diligence  to  disclose  his  deceit : 
so  that  God  give  me  leave  to  keep  the  court  with  him,  he 
shall  win  but. little  except  he  convey  his  balls  more  crafty. 
And  yet  the  truth  to  say  we  play  not  on  even  hand ;  for  I 
am,  in  a  manner,  as  a  man  bound  to  a  post,  and  cannot  so 
well  bestow  me  in  my  play  as  if  I  were  at  liberty ;  for  I 
may  not  have  such  books  as  are  necessary  for  me,  neither 
yet  pen,  ink,,  nor  paper,  but  only  secretly,  so  that  I  am  in 
continual  fear  both  of  tlie  lieutenant  and  my  keeper,  lest 
they  should  espy  any  such  thing  by  me ;  and  therefore  it  is 
little  marvel  though  the  work  be  imperfect,  for  whensoever 
I  hear  the  keys  ring  at  the  doors,  straight  all  must  be  con- 
veyed out  of  the  way  (and  then  if  any  notable  thing  had 
been  in  my  mind  it  was  clean  lost) ;  and  therefore  I  beseech 
thee,  good  reader,  count  it  as  a  thing  born  out  of  season, 
which  for  many  causes  cannot  have  its  perfect  form  and 
shape,  and  pardon  me  my  rudeness  and  imperfection." 

It  is  greatly  to  the  credit  of  Rastell,  that  neither 
Lis  high  connexions,  nor  the  situation  of  his  opponent, 
could  shut  his  ears  to  the  truth.      Frith's   treatise  was 


THE    YOUTHFUL    MARTYR.  249 

crowned  by  Rastell's  conversion  to  the  views  of  which  he 
had  twice  been  the  public  assailant. 

Nor  was  he  afraid  to  measure  swords  again  with  the 
mighty  Lord  Chancellor,  though  lying  in  prison  under  his 
authority.  Previous  to  his  arrest  Frith  had  been  drawn, 
in  spite  of  his  own  prudence  and  the  cautions  of  Tyndale, 
into  the  dispute  on  the  Supper.  A  christian  brother  of 
great  excellence  of  character,  far  more  worthy  as  Frith 
asserts,  "to  be  a  bishop  than  many  that  wear  the  mitre, 
if  the  rule  of  St.  Paul  were  regarded  in  the  election,"  had 
in  private  requested  a  statement  of  his  views  on  this  much 
controverted  topic.  Frith's  view  of  the  sacrament  gave 
him  so  much  satisfaction  that  he  begged  to  be  favored  with 
it  in  writing,  simply  for  his  own  edification ;  which  was 
done,  the  author  also  retaining  a  copy.  But  all  this  time 
Sir  Thomas  More  had  his  spies  round  the  country,  to  en- 
trap Frith  ;  and  one  of  them,  William  Holt  by  name,  fore- 
man to  the  king's  tailor,  having  discovered  his  hiding  place, 
had  so  insinuated  himself  into  his  confidence  as  to  gain  sight 
of  the  dangerous  manuscript.  Of  this  he  earnestly  begged 
the  loan  as  a  matter  of  friendship,  and  carried  it  forthwith 
to  the  Lord  Chancellor,  in  whose  hands  two  other  copies 
had  been  placed  in  the  meantime,  by  similar  honorable 
agencies.  To  this  transaction  Frith  alludes  as  the  immediate 
cause  of  his  imprisonment ;  and  from  the  Tower  warned  his 
friends  of  the  false  brethren  who,  for  such  base  ends,  had 
crept  in  among  them,  "  feigning  themselves  to  be  just 
men." 

"  Prepare  ye  cloaks,"  says  the  undaunted  young  cham- 
pion, "  for  the  weather  waxeth  cloudy,  and  rain  is  likely  to 
follow.     I  mean  not  false  excuses,  and   fore-swearing  of 

yourselves,   bxit   that   ye  look  substantially  upon   God's 

11* 


250  THE    ENGLISH    BIBLE. 

word,  that  ye  may  be  able  to  answer  their  subtle  objec- 
tions ;  and  rather  choose  manfully  to  die  for  Christ  and 
his  word,  than  cowardly  to  deny  him  for  this  vain  and 
transitory  life." 

Having  his  despised  enemy  under  bolt  and  bars,  and  de- 
nied the  use  of  books  and  pen,  Sir  Thomas  More  was  now 
prepared  to  answer  him.  He  accordingly  wrote  and 
printed  an  elaborate  reply ;  and  then,  for  some  reason 
which  he  very  lamely  glosses  over  in  his  Apology,  at- 
tempted to  suppress  it.  Frith's  remark  on  it  is,  that 
"  some  men  think  he  is  ashamed  of  his  part."  A  printed 
copy  could  not  be  obtained  for  his  use ;  but  some  of  his 
friends  having,  with  great  difficulty,  procured  a  rough 
draught,  Frith  immediately  addressed  himself  to  an  expo- 
sition of  the  subject,  far  more  thorough  and  comprehensive 
than  he  had  deemed  necessary  for  the  well-instructed  bro- 
ther, at  whose  instance  he  had  prepared  his  first  treatise. 
More,  in  his  Apology,  speaks  of  a  report  which  had  reached 
him,  that  "  the  young  foolish  fellow  was  sweating  in  study- 
ing and  writing  against  the  blessed  sacrament;"  and  says 
he  had  expressed  the  wish,  "  that  some  good  friend  might 
shew  him  that  I  fear  me  sore,  Christ  will  kindle  a  fire  of 
faggots  for  him,  and  make  therein  sweat  the  blood  out  of 
his  body  here,  and  straight  from  hence  send  his  soul  for- 
ever into  the  fire  of  hell  !"* 

From  this  coarse  and  savage  railing,  one  turns  with  de- 
light to  the  pages  of  Frith,  who,  in  the  prospect  of  a  speedy 
termination  of  his  brief  course  by  the  cruel  death  of  burn- 
ing, replies  to  his  great  opponent  with  a  clearness  of  argu- 
ment, a  manly  earnestness  and  dignity,  which  betokens  a 
mind  governed  and  sustained  by  a  profound  faith  in  the 
*  Apology,  p.  903. 


THE    YOUTHFUL    MARTYR.  251 

truth  he  advocates.  A  year  or  more  had  now  elapsed 
since  he  was  thrown  into  the  Tower ;  and  his  numerous 
examinations  before  the  Chancellor  and  the  Bishops,  had 
left  no  doubt  in  his  mind  that  his  death  was  determined 
on.  To  this  he  alludes  in  answer  to  a  sneer  of  Sir  Thomas, 
respecting  th,e  wonderful  activity  of  the  prisoner's  pen  : 

"  I  answer,  that  surely  I  cannot  spin,  and  I  think  no 
man  more  hateth  to  be  idle  than  I  do :  wherefore  in  such 
things  as  I  am  able  to  do,  I  shall  be  diligent  as  long  as 
God  lendeth  me  my  life.  And  if  ye  think  I  be  too  busy, 
ye  may  rid  me  the  sooner ;  for  even  as  the  sheep  is  in  the 
butcher's  hands  ready  bound,  and  looketh  but  even  for  the 
grace  of  the  butcher  when  he  shall  shed  his  blood ;  even 
so  am  I  bound  at  the  bishops'  pleasure,  ever  looking  for 
the  day  of  my  death,  insomuch  that  plain  word  was  sent 
me,  that  the  Chancellor  of  London  said  it  should  cost  me 
the  best  blood  in  my  body ;  which  I  would  be  glad  were 
shed  to-morrow,  if  so  be  it  might  open  the  King's  grace's 
eyes." 

Sir  Thomas  had  professed  himself  an  ardent  lover  of 
peace.  If  the  people  would  but  shut  their  ears  to  all 
these  agitating  questions,  and  rejecting  alike  his  books  and 
those  of  the  heretics  against  whom  he  wrote,  would  cleave 
fast  to  the  good  old  ways,  he  would  be  well  content  were 
all  that  he  and  they  had  written,  burned  up  together.  He 
often  adjures  the  reformers,  if  they  are  so  stirred  up  by  the 
adversary  of  good,  that  they  must  be  at  work,  at  least  to 
restrict  their  poison  to  those  who  are  already  infected. 
Frith  quotes  from  him  an  expression  to  this  effect,  and  re- 
plies to  it  in  the  following  noble  words  : 

"  It  is  not  possible  for  him  that  hath  his  eyes,  and  seeth 
his  brother  which  lacketh  sight  in  jeopardy  of  perishing  at 


252  THE    ENGLISH    BIBLE. 

a  perilous  pit,  but  that  lie  must  come  to  him  and  guide 
him,  till  he  is  past  that  jeopardy  ;  and  at  the  least  wise,  if 
be  cannot  come  to  him,  yet  will  he  call  and  cry  unto  him, 
to  cause  bim  to  choose  the  better  way,  except  his  heart  be 
cankered  with  the  contagion  of  such  hatred,  that  he  can  re- 
joice in  his  neighbor's  destruction.  And  even  so,  it  is  not 
possible  for  us  which  have  received  the  knowledge  of  God's 
word,  but  that  we  must  cry  and  call  to  others  that  they 
leave  the  perilous  paths  of  their  own  foolish  fantasies,  and 
do  that  only  to  the  Lord  that  he  commandeth  them,  nei- 
ther adding  any  thing  nor  diminishing.  And  therefore, 
until  we  see  some  means  found,  by  the  which  a  reasonable 
reformation  may  be  had  on  the  one  part,  and  sufficient  in- 
struction for  the  poor  commoners,  I  assure  you  I  neither 
will  nor  can  cease  to  speak ;  for  the  word  of  God  boileth 
in  my  body  like  a  fervent  fire,  and  will  needs  have  an 
issue,  and  breaketh  out  when  occasion  is  given. 

"  But  this  hath  been  offered  you,  is  offered,  and  shall 
be  offered.  Grant  that  the  word  of  God — I  mean  the  text 
of  Scripture — may  go  abroad  in  our  English  tongue,  as 
other  nations  have  it  in  their  tongues,  and  my  brother 
William  Tyndale  and  I  have  done,  and  will  promise  you 
to  write  no  more:  if  you  will  not  grant  this  condition, 
then  will  we  be  doing  while  we  have  breath,  and  show  in 
few  words  what  the  Scripture  doth  in  many ;  and  so,  at 
the  least,  save  some." 

In  May,  1533,  More  went  out  of  office,  and  Sir  Thomas 
Audley  took  his  place  as  Chancellor.  An  immediate  re- 
laxation in  the  rigor  of  Frith's  confinement,  gave  token 
that  there  was  a  change  of  policy  as  well  as  of  hands  in 
the  administration,  and  that  the  bishops  could  no  longer 
reckon,  as  their  chief  ally  in  persecution,  the  Keeper  of 


THE    YOUTHFUL    MARTYf...  253 

the  Great  Seal.  Crumwell  too,  a  cautious  friend  of  "  the 
new  learning,"  was  high  in  power  ;  and,  It  is  said,  was  per- 
sonally favorable  to  the  prisoner — a  fact  in  whioli  we  trace 
the  influence  of  Cranmer,  now  Archbishop  of  Canterbury. 
Probably,  however,  these  shrewd  statesmen  thought  it 
safer,  cousidenng  their  royal  master's  temper,  to  let  the 
matter  drop  out  of  sight,  than  to  permit  it  to  come  to  an 
open  trial  of  strength.  Such  is  the  most  natural  interpre- 
tation of  the  permission  now  given  to  Frith,  "  to  go  at 
liberty  during  the  night,  simply  on  his  own  word  and 
promise,  that  he  might  consult  with  his  friends."  If  it 
was  their  expectation  that  he  would  avail  himself  of  the 
opportunity  to  escape,  they  must  have  been  not  a  little 
vexed  to  learn  of  his  punctual  return  to  prison  at  the  ap- 
pointed hour.  It  was  not  the  last  time  that  he  disobliged 
his  well-wishers  by  his  incorruptible  honor. 

But  the  triumph  of  the  wicked  was  near  at  hand.  Gar- 
diner, Bishop  of  Winchester — a  name  inseparably  linked 
■with  that  of  Bonner  in  the  annals  of  cruelty — had  once 
stood  in  intimate  relations  with  Frith,  as  his  tutor  and  pa- 
tron, but  was  now  his  implacable  enemy.  At  his  instiga- 
tion, the  King  was  informed  one  Sunday,  in  a  sermon 
preached  against  "  the  Sacramentarians,'''  that  one  of  these 
very  heretics  was  now  lying  in  the  Tower  of  London,  and 
so  leniently  dealt  with,  as  actually  to  be  employing  his 
leisure  in  writing  books  to  impugn  the  blessed  sacrament  of 
the  altar.  Henry  was  much  displeased  on  hearing  this 
fact ;  and  having  learned,  on  farther  incjuiry,  that  he  had 
been  already  several  months  in  prison,  ordered  Cranmer 
and  Crumwell  to  attend  forthwith  to  his  examination,  "  so 
that  he  might  either  be  compelled  to  recant,  or  else  by  the 
law  to  suifer  condign  punishment." 


254  THE    ENGLISH   BIBLE. 

A  commission  of  the  highest  rank  was  appointed  by  the 
King  to  take  charge  of  the  trial,  consisting  of  the  Arch- 
bishop of  Canterbury,  the  Bishops  of  Loudon  and  Win- 
chester, the  Lord  Chancellor,  the  Duke  of  Suffolk,  (the 
King's  brother-in-law,)  and  the  Earl  of  Wiltshire,  (the 
Queen's  father.) 

The  arrangements  made  for  the  trial  by  the  Archbishop, 
betray  his  timid  and  vacillating  character.  There  is  no 
reason  whatever  to  doubt  that  he  wished,  most  sincerely 
and  earnestly,  to  save  Frith  ;  but  knowing  how  slippery 
was  the  eminence  on  which  he  himself  stood,  and  how  many 
hands  were  ready,  at  the  slightest  misstep,  to  push  him 
from  his  place,  he  dared  not  do  justice  to  his  principles  or 
Ms  heart.  Poor  Cranmer !  he  "  died  a  thousand  deaths 
in  fearing  one  ;"  and  after  all,  finished  his  life  at  the  stake, 
enduring  a  martyr's  death  without  a  martyr's  glory. 

"  To  avoid,"  it  was  said,  "  a  concourse  of  citizens,"  the 
Archbishop  removed  his  court  from  London  to  his  country 
residence  at  Croydon.  Whether  it  was  not  rather  for 
another  purpose,  the  reader  will  judge  by  the  sequel. 
When  the  day  appointed  for  the  trial  was  near  at  hand,  he 
sent  two  of  his  servants,  on  foot — one  a  gentleman  of  his 
household,  the  other  a  Welsh  porter,  by  the  name  of  Per- 
lebean — with  letters  and  the  King's  ring,  to  demand  Frith 
of  the  Constable  of  the  Tower.  We  continue  the  narra- 
tive from  Foxe : — 

"  'When  Frith  was  delivered  to  my  Lord  of  Canterbury's  gentleman, 
they  twain,  with  Perlebean,  sitting  in  a  wherry,  and  rowing  towards  Lam- 
beth :  the  said  gentleman,  much  lamenting  in  his  mind  the  infelicity  of  tho 
said  Frith,  began  in  this  wise  to  exhort  him — '  To  consider  in  what  estate 
he  was,  a  man  altogether  cast  away  in  this  world,  if  he  did  not  look  wisely 
to  himself  And  yet,  though  his  cause  was  never  so  dangerous,  he  might 
somewhat,  in  relenting  to  authority,  and  go  giving  place  for  a  time,  both 


THE   YOUTHFUL    MARTYR.  255 

help  himself  o«";  of  trouble,  and  when  opportunity  and  occasion  should 
serve,  prefer  his  cause,  which  he  then  went  about  to  defend— declaring 
farther  that  he  had  many  woU-willers  and  friends,  which  would  stand  on 
his  side,  so  far  forth  as  possible  they  then  were  able,  and  durst  do  :  adding 
hereunto  that  it  were  a  great  pity  that  he,  being  of  such  singular  knowledge, 
both  in  the  Latin  and  Greek ;  both  ready  and  ripe  in  all  kind  of  learning, 
as  well  in  the  Scriptures  as  in  the  ancient  doctors  ;  should  now  suddenly 
suffer  all  ihose  singular  gifts  to  perish  with  him,  with  little  commodity  or 
profit  to  the  world,  and  less  comfort  to  his  wife  and  children,  and  others,  his 
kinsfolk  and  friends.'—'  This  I  am  sure  of,'  quoth  the  gentleman,  '  that  my 
Lord  Crumwell  and  my  Lord  of  Canterbury,  much  favoring  you,  and  know- 
ino'  you  to  be  an  .eloquent  learned  young  man,  and  now  towards  the  felicity 
of  your  life,  young  in  years,  old  in  knowledge,  and  of  great  forwardness 
and  likelihood  to  be  a,  most  profitable  member  of  this  realm,  will  never 
permit  you  to  sustain  any  open  shame,  if  you  will  somewhat  be  advised  by 
their  counsel.  On  the  other  side,  if  you  stand  stiff  to  your  opmion,  it  is  not 
possible  to  save  your  life.  For  like  as  you  have  good  friends,  so  have  you 
mortal  foes  and  enemies.' 

« '  I  most  heartily  thank  you,'  quoth  Master  Frith,  '  both  for  your  good 
■will  and  for  your  counsel,  by  the  which  I  well  perceive  that  you  mean  well 
unto  me.  Howbeit,  my  cause  and  conscience  is  such,  that  in  no  wise  I  may 
not  nor  cannot  for  any  worldly  respect,  without  danger  of  damnation,  start 
aside  and  fly  from  the  true  knowledge  and  doctrine  which  I  have  conceived 
of  the  Supper  of  the  Lord,  or  the  communion,  otherwise  called  the  sacra- 
ment of  the  altar ;  for  if  it  be  my  chance  to  bo  demanded  what  I  think  in 
that  behalf,  I  must  needs  say  my  knowledge  and  my  conscience,  as  partly 
I  have  written  therein  already,  though  I  should  presently  lose  twenty  lives, 
if  I  had  so  many.  And  this  you  shall  well  understand,  that  I  am  not  so 
unfurnished,  either  of  Scripture  or  ancient  doctors,  schoolmen  or  others, 
for  my  defence  ;  so  that  if  I  may  be  indifferently  [impartially]  heard,  I  am 
sure  that  mine  adversaries  cannot  justly  condemn  me  or  mine  assertion,  but 
that  they  shall  condemn  with  me  St.  Augustine,  and  the  most  part  of  tho 
old  writers  ;  yea,  the  very  Bishops  of  Rome  of  the  oldest  sort  shall  also  say 
for  me  and  defend  my  cause.' 

"  '  Yea,  marry,'  quoth  the  gentleman,  '  you  say  well,  if  you  might  be  in- 
differently heard.  But  I  much  doubt  thereof,  for  that  our  Master,  Christ, 
was  not  indifferently  heard  ;  nor  should  be,  as  I  think,  if  he  were  now  pre- 
sent again  in  the  world,  specially  in  this  your  opinion  ;  the  same  being  so 
odious  in  the  world  and  we  so  far  off  from  the  true  knowledge  thereof.' 

"  '  Well,  well,'  quoth  Frith  thsn  unto  tho  gentleman,  '  I  know  very  well 


256  THE   ENGLISH   BIBLE. 

that  this  doctrine  of  the  sacrament  of  the  altar,  which  I  hold  and  have 
opened  contrary  to  the  opinion  of  this  realm,  is  very  hard  meat  to  be  di- 
gested, both  of  the  clergy  and  laity  thereof.  But  this  I  will  say  to  you, 
[taking  the  gentleman  by  the  hand,]  that  if  you  live  but  twenty  years 
more,  whatsoever  become  of  me,  you  shall  see  this  whole  realm  of  mine 
opinion ;  namely,  the  whole  estate  of  the  same,  though  some  sort  of  men 
particularly  shall  not  be  fully  persuaded  therein.  And  if  it  come  not  so  to 
pass,  then  account  me  the  vainest  man  that  ever  you  heard  speak  with 
tongue. 

"  '  Besides  this,  you  say  that  my  death  would  be  sorrowful  and  uncom- 
fortable unto  my  friends.  I  grant,  that  for  a  small  time  it  would  be  so  ;  but 
if  I  should  so  mollify,  qualify,  and  temper  my  cause,  in  such  sort  as  to  de- 
serve only  to  be  kept  in  prison,  that  would  not  only  be  a  much  longer  grief 
unto  me,  but  also  to  my  friends  would  breed  no  small  unquietness,  both  of 
body  and  mind.  And  therefore,  all  things  well  and  rightly  pondered,  my 
death  in  this  cause  shall  be  better  unto  me  and  all  mine,  than  life  in  contin- 
ual bondage  and  penuries.  And  Almighty  God  knoweth  what  he  hath  to 
do  with  his  poor  servant,  whose  cause  I  now  defend,  and  not  my  own*;  from 
the  which  I  assuredly  do  intend,  God  willing,  never  to  start,  or  otherwise 
to  give  place,  as  long  as  God  will  give  me  life.' 

'  This  communication,  or  like  in  efiect,  my  Lord  of  Canterbury's  gentle- 
man and  Frith  had,  coming  in  the  wherry  on  the  Thames,  from  the  Tower 
to  Lambeth. 

"  Now  when  they  were  landed,  after  some  repast  by  them  taken  at  Lam- 
beth, the  gentleman,  the  porter,  and  Frith  went  forward  towards  Croyden 
(nearly  ten  miles,)  on  foot.  This  gentleman  still  lamenting  with  himself, 
the  hard  and  cruel  destiny  of  Frith,  if  he  once  came  among  the  Bishops, 
and  now  also  perceiving  the  exceeding  constancy  of  Frith,  devised  with  him- 
self some  way  or  means  to  convey  him  clean  out  of  their  hands  ;  and  there- 
fore, considering  that  there  were  no  more  persons  there  to  convey  the  pris- 
oner but  the  porter  and  himself,  he  took  in  hand  to  win  the  porter  to  his 
purpose. 

"  Said  the  gentleman  to  Perlebean,  (walking  by  themselves  without  tho 
hearing  of  Frith,)  '  You  have  heard  this  man,  I  am  sure,  and  noted  hia 
talk  since  he  came  from  the  Tower?' — '  Tea,  that  I  have  right  well,'  quoth 
the  porter,  '  and  I  never  heard  so  constant  a  man,  nor  so  eloquent  a  person.' 
'  You  have  heard  nothing,'  quoth  the  gentleman,  '  in  respect  of  both  hia 
knowledge  and  eloquence  ;  if  he  might  liberally  (freely,)  either  in  univer- 
sity or  pulpit,  declare  his  learning,  you  would  then  much  more  marvel  at 
his  knowledge.    I  take  hint  to  bo  such  a  one  of  Ma  age,  in  all  kind  of 


THE    YOUTHFUL    MARTYR.  257 

learning  and  knowledge  of  tongues,  as  this  realm  never  yet,  in  mine  opin- 
ion, brought  forth.  And  yet  those  singular  gifts  in  him  are  no  more  con- 
sidered of  our  Bishops,  than  if  he  were  a  very  dolt  or  an  idiot ;  yea,  they 
abhor  him  as  a  devil  therefore,  and  covet  utterly  to  extinguish  him  as  a 
member  of  the  devil,  without  any  consider:,  ion  of  God's  special  gifts.' 

"  '  Marry,'  quoth  the  porter,  '  if  there  were  nothing  else  in  him  but  the  con- 
sideration of  his  personage,  both  comely  and  amiable,  and  of  natural  dispo- 
sitions— gentle,  meelj,  and  humble — it  were  pity  he  should  be  cast  away.' 

"  '  Cast  away,'  quoth  the  gentleman,  'he  shall  be  sure  cast  away,  if  we 
once  bring  him  to  Croydon.  And  surely,'  said  he,  '  before  God  I  speak 
it,  if  thou,  Perlebean,  were  of  my  mind,  we  would  never  bring  him  thither.' 
'  Say  you  so  V  quoth  the  porter.  '  I  know  that  you  be  of  a  great  deal 
more  credit  than  I  am  in  this  matter ;  and  therefore,  if  you  can  devise 
honestly,  or  find  some  reasonable  excuse,  whereby  we  may  let  him  go  and 
provide  for  himself,  I  will,  with  all  my  heart,  condescend  to  your  device.' 
'  As  for  that,'  quoth  the  gentleman,  '  it  is  already  invented  how,  and  which 
ways,  he  shall  convey  himself,  without  any  great  danger  or  displeasure 
taken  towards  us,  as  the  matter  shall  be  handled.  "Xou  see,'  quoth  the 
gentleman,  '  yonder  hill  before  us,  named  Bristow  (Brixton)  Causeway, 
(three  miles  from  London,)  there  are  great  woods  on  both  sides.  When 
we  come  there,  we  will  permit  Frith  to  go  into  the  woods  on  the  left 
hand  of  the  way,  whereby  he  may  convey  himself  into  Kent  among  his 
friends,  for  he  is  a  Kentish  man  ;  and  when  he  is  gone,  we  will  linger  an 
hour  or  two  about  the  highway,  until  that  it  draw  towards  the  night.  Then, 
in  great  haste,  we  will  approach  to  Streatham,  which  is  a  mile  and  a  half 
farther  on,  and  make  an  outcry  in  the  town,  that  our  prisoner  is  broken 
from  us  into  the  woods  on  the  right  hand,  towards  Wandsworth,  so  that  wo 
shall  draw  as  many  as  we  may,  to  search  the  country  that  way  for  our  pris- 
oner, declaring  that  we  followed  above  a  mile  or  more,  and  at  length  lost 
Mm  in  the  woods,  because  we  had  no  more  company.  And  so  we  will,  rather 
than  fail,  lie  out  one  night  in  searching  for  him,  and  send  word  from  Strea- 
tham to  my  Lord  of  Canterbury  at  Croydon,  in  the  evening,  of  the  prison- 
er's escape,  and  to  what  coast  ho  has  fled.  So  that  by  the  morning,  if  ho 
have  any  good  luck  at  all,  he  will  so  provide  for  himself,  that  the  Bishops 
shall  fail  of  their  purpose.' — '  I  assure  you,'  quoth  Perlebean,  '  I  like  very 
well  the  device  herein.  And  therefore,  go  ye  to  Frith,  and  declare  that  wo 
have  devised  for  his  delivery  ;  for  now  we  are  almost  at  the  place.' 

"  When  my  Lord  of  Canterbury's  gentleman  came  nigh  to  the  hill,  ho 
joined  himself  in  company  with  Frith,  and  calling  him  by  his  name,  said  : 
'  Now,  Master  Frith,  let  us  tirain  commune  together  another  while.    You 


258  THE    ENGLISH    BIBLE. 

must  consider,  that  the  joui-ney  which  I  have  now  taken  in  hand  thus  in 
bringing  you  unto  Croydon,  as  a  sheep  to  the  slaughter,  so  grieveth  me — 
and,  as  it  were,  overwhelmeth  me  in  cares  and  sorrows — that  I  little  mind 
what  danger  I  fall  in,  so  that  I  could  find  the  means  to  deliver  you  out  of 
the  lion's  mouth.  And  yet,  yonder  good  fellow  and  I  have  devised  a 
means,  whereby  you  may  both  easily  escape  from  this  great  and  imminent 
danger  at  hand,  and  we  also  be  rid  from  any  vehement  suspicion.' 

"  When  Frith  had  diligently  heard  all  the  matter  concerning  his  delivery, 
he  said  to  the  gentleman,  with  a  smiling  countenance :  '  Is  this  the  effect 
of  your  secret  consultation,  thus  long,  between  you  twain  7  Surely,  surely, 
you  have  lost  a  great  deal  more  labor  in  times  past,  and  so  are  you  like  to 
do  this.  For  if  you  should  both  leave  me  here  and  go  to  Croydon,  declaring 
to  the  Bishops  that  you  had  lost  Frith,  I  would  surely  follow  as  fast  after 
as  I  might,  and  bring  them  news  that  I  had  found  and  brought  Frith, 
again.  Do  you  think,'  said  he,  '  that  I  am  afraid  to  declare  my  opiniou 
to  the  Bishops  of  England  in  a  manifest  truth  V 

"  '  You  are  a  foolish  man,'  quoth  the  gentleman,  '  thus  to  talk  ;  as  though 
your  reasoning  with  them  might  do  some  good.  But  I  do  much  marvel, 
that  you  were  so  willing  to  fly  the  reakn,  before  you  were  taken,  and  now 
so  unwilling  to  save  yourself!' 

"  '  There  was  and  is  a  great  diversity  of  escaping,  between  the  one  and 
the  other,'  said  Frith.  '  Before,  I  was  indeed  desirous  to  escape,  because  I 
was  not  attached,  but  at  liberty  ;  which  liberty  I  would  fain  have  enjoyed 
— for  the  maintenance  of  my  study  beyond  the  sea,  where  I  was  reader  iu 
the  Greek  tongue — according  to  St.  Paul's  counsel.  Howbeit,  now,  being 
taken  by  the  higher  powers — and,  as  it  were,  by  Almighty  God's  permis- 
sion and  providence — delivered  into  the  hands  of  the  Bishops,  only  for  religion 
and  doctrine's  sake,  such  as  in  conscience,  and  under  pain  of  damnation, 
I  am  bound  to  maintain  and  defend.  If  I  should  now  start  aside  and  run 
away,  I  should  run  from  my  God,  and  from  the  testimony  of  his  holy  Word 
— worthy  then  of  a  thousand  hells.  And  therefore,  I  most  heartily  thank 
you  both  for  yom*  good  will  toward  me,  beseeching  you  to  bring  me  where 
I  was  appointed  to  be  brought,  for  else  I  will  go  thither  all  alone.'  And 
so,  with  a  cheerful  and  merry  countenance,  he  went  with  them,  spending 
the  time  with  pleasant  and  godly  communication,  until  they  came  to  Croy- 
don, where  for  that  night  he  was  well  entertained  in  the  Porter's  lodge. 

"  On  the  morrow,  he  was  called  before  certain  Bishops  and  other  learned 
men,  sitting  in  commission  with  the  Lord  of  Canterbury,  to  be  examined, 
where  he  shewed  himself  passing  ready  and  ripe,  in  answering  to  all  objec- 
tions, as  some  then  reported,  incredibly  and  contrary  to  all  men's  expecta^- 
tions.     His  allegations,  both  out  of  Augusthre  and  other  ancient  fathers  of 


THE    YOUTHFUL    MARTYR.  259 

the  church,  were  such,  that  some  of  them  much  doubted  of  Augustine's  au- 
thority in  that  behalf:  insomuch  that  it  was  reported  by  them  who  were 
nigh  and  about  the  Archbishoj  of  Canterbury,  that  when  they  had  finished 
their  examination,  the  Archbishop,  conferring  with  Dr.  Heath,  privately 
between  themselves,  said:  'This  man  hath  wonderfully  labored  in  this 
matter,  and  yet  in  mine  opinion  he  taketh  the  doctors  amiss.' — '  AVell,  my 
Lord,'  saith  Dr.  Heath,  '  there  is  no  man  who  can  do  away  his  authorities 
from  Augustine.'  He  then  began  to  repeat  them  again,  inferring  and  ap- 
plying them  so  strongly,  that  my  Lord  said  :  '  I  see  that  you,  with  a  little 
more  study,  will  easily  be  brought  to  Fritli's  opinion.' 

"  This  learned  young  man  being  thus  thoroughly  sifted  at  Croydon,  to 
imderstand  what  he  could  say  and  do  in  his  cause,  there  was  no  man  willing  • 
to  prefer  him  to  answer  in  open  disputation." 

Here  ended  the  ti-ial ;  bat  Cranmer  still  retained  him 
several  days,  laboring  most  earnestly  in  private  to  con- 
vince bini  of  his  errors.  Finding  this  out  of  the  question, 
he  transferred  him  at  length  to  Stokesly,  Bishop  of  Lon- 
don, for  final  examination.  This  took  place  in  St.  Paul's, 
in  presence  also  of  the  Bishops  of  Lincoln  and  Winchester, 
and  was  marked  by  the  same  unwavering  constancy  and 
calmness  on  the  part  of  Frith.  "  When  the  question  was 
finally  put  whether  he  would  subscribe  his  answers,  he  took 
up  the  pen,  and  with  his  own  hand  wroie  these  words  : 
'  Ego  Frithus  ita  sentio,  et  quemadmodum  sentio,  ita  dixi, 
scripsi,  asservi  et  affirniavi,'  &c.  :  /,  Fritlt^  thus  do  think  ; 
and  as  1  thinlc^  so  have  I  said,  loritten,  defended,  and 
affmned,  and  in7ny  hooks  have  j)uhUshed.'''' 

He  was  thereupon  condemned  to  death  as  an  obstinate 
heretic,  and  delivered  over  to  the  Maj'or  and  Sheriffs  of 
Loudon  for  execution.  Being  theu  committed  to  New- 
gate, he  was  immured  in  a  dungeon  under  the  gate,  loaded 
with  as  many  irons  as  he  could  sustain,  and  his  neck  bound 
to  a  post  with  an  iron  collar,  so  that  he  could  neither  sifc 
down  nor  stand  upright.  Yet  even  here  his  Christian 
cheerfulness  and  energy  dii  not  forsake  him;  and  fettered 


260  THE    ENGLISH   BIBLE. 

as  he  was,  he  was  constantly  employed  in  writing,  by  the 
light  of  a  candle,  (no  other  ever  penetrated  to  his  prison,) 
words  of  pious  comfort  and  encouragement  to  his  sorrowing 
brethren. 

Aftor  a  few  daj's  of  this  torturing  imprisonment,  he  was 
taken  (July  4th,  1533)  to  Smithfield  for  execution.  With 
him  was  a  faithful  companion — a  tailor's  apprentice,  An- 
drew Hewet  by  name* — a  guileless,  affectionate,  simple- 
hearted  being,  who  deemed  no  other  answer  necessary  to 
the  learned  doctors  who  examined  him,  than  that  he  be- 
lieved "  even  as  John  Frith  doth."  When  told  that  then 
he  must  burn  with  him,  he  replied  :  "  Truly,  I  am  content 
withal !"  Being  bound  to  the  same  stake,  the  wind  blew 
the  flames  away  from  Frith,  thus  protracting  his  cruel 
agonies ;  but  the  young  martyr  rejoiced  at  the  circum- 
stance, as  abridging  the  sufferings  of  his  humble  friend. 
One  Dr.  Cooke  standing  by,  berated  them,  and  bade  the 
people  not  pray  for  them  more  than  they  would  for  a  dog ; 
at  which  Frith  smiled,  and  prayed  the  Lord  to  forgive  him  ! 

Thus  died — not  yet  thirty  years  old — one  of  the  most 
brilliant,  accomplished,  and  virtuous  of  English  youths. 
It  was  an  end  glorious  to  himself  and  to  the  cause  for 
which  he  died ;  but  an  eternal  disgrace  to  the  government 
and  the  church  who  joined  hands  to  shed  his  blood.  As 
Tyndale's  chief  helper  in  translating  the  English  Bible, 
so  much  notice  was  due  to  him  in  this  volume.  What  par- 
ticular part  he  had  in  that  noble  work,  is  not  known  ;  but 
it  is  pleasant,  while  enjoying  the  fruit  of  Tyndale's  piety 
and  learning,  to  reflect  that  we  may  likewise  be  enjoying 
that  of  his  younger,  but  no  less  worthy  and  devoted  co- 
laborer. 

*  His  accuser  was  the  same  base  wretch  who  had  betrayed  Frith  to  hia 
enemies. 


CHAPTER  X. 


ANNE  BOLEYN :  THE  ROYAL  PATRONESS. 

We  turn  now  to  those  counter  influences  in  the  English 
court,  referred  to  at  the  close  of  chapter  viii,  which  be- 
gan at  this  time  to  affect  sensibly  the  interests  of  the  Po- 
pish party.  To  understand  their  character  we  must  glance 
back  to  their  origin  in  the  reign  of  Henry  VII. 

In  the  year  150 1 ,  a  marriage  had  been  concluded  between 
Arthur,  Prince  of  Wales,  and  Katherine,  third  daughter 
of  Ferdinand  and  Isabella  of  Spain.  The  Prince  dying  a 
few  months  after,  his  avaricious  father,  Henry  VII,  who 
could  not  make  up  his  mind  to  restore  the  young  widow's 
splendid  dowry,  projected  a  union  between  her  and  his  sec- 
ond son  Henry,  now  become,  by  his  brother's  death,  heir 
to  the  throne.  But  as  marriage  with  a  brother's  wife 
came  within  the  degrees  of  affinity  prohibited  by  the  church, 
a  dispensation  was  solicited  and  obtained  without  difficulty 
from  Pope  Julius,  who  thought  by  this  means  to  secure 
the  future  king  of  England  and  his  posterity  as  the  grateful 
and  submissive  vassals  of  Rome.  Accordingly  in  1503, 
Prince"^  Henry  being  then  in  his  twelfth  year  and  Katherine 
already  twenty,  they  were  betrothed  with  the  understand- 
ing that  the  marriage  was  to  take  place  when  Henry  should 


262  THE   ENGLISH   BIBLE. 

have  attained  the  age  of  manhood.  But  whether  such  a 
result  was  ever  intended  by  his  father  is  extremely  doubt- 
ful ;  since  it  was  by  his  direction  that  the  prince,  on  reach- 
ing his  fourteenth  year,  recorded  his  formal  protest  against 
the  connexion  ;  and  it  was  his  solemn  dying  injunction,  that 
his  son  should  not  incumber  himself  with  a  marriage  liable 
to  so  many  objections. 

On  Henry's  accession  to  the  throne,  in  his  eighteenth 
year,  this  important  question,  the  decison  of  which  could 
be  deferred  no  longer,  gave  rise  to  warm  debates  among 
the  royal  advisers.  Warham,  then  Chancellor  and  Pri- 
mate, threw  the  whole  weight  of  his  influence  against  the 
union,  which  he  condemned  "as  incestuous  and  contrary  to 
the  laws  of  God,  with  which,"  he  averred,  "  the  pope  could 
not  dispense."*  But  Fox,  Bishop  of  Winchester,  Secre- 
tary and  Lord  Privy  Seal,  and  a  large  majority  of  the 
council,  urged  such  strong  political  and  prudential  argu- 
ments, that  the  young  king  yielded,  though,  it  is  said,  not 
without  reluctance.  The  marriage,  so  strangely  brought 
about,  was  solemnized  June  7th,  1509. f 

These  facts  are  of  importance,  as  showing  that  neither  the 
legality  nor  the  morality  of  this  union  were  by  any  means 
admitted  as  unquestionable,  either  before  or  at  the  date 
of  its  consummation  ;  and  that  there  existed  grounds  which 
might,  at  any  time,  become  the  basis  of  political  or  eccle- 
siastical intrigues. 

For  many  years  no  such  occasion  arose;  and  Katherine, 
by  her  personal  charms  and  virtues,  acquired  and  long  re- 
tained the  affections  of  her  husband.  The  repeated  loss  of 
children  was,  indeed,  a  great  drawback  to  the  happiness  of 
their  union,  the  princess  Mary  being  the  only  one  of  their 

*  Henry's  History,  Vol.  XI,  p.  60.  f  lb. 


ANNE  BOLEYN  :  THE  ROYAL  PATRONESS.      263 

numerous  family  who  survived  the  age  of  iufancy ;  but  it 
does  not  appear  that  Henry  entertained  any  serious  doubts 
of  the  lawfulness  of  his  marriage  before  the  year  1524. 
Such  is  the  date  mentioned  by  himself,  in  a  letter  to  the 
learned  Grynaeus,  as  the  time  when  his  scruples  commenced  ; 
as  also  that  they  originated  wholly  in  his  own  mind,  and 
were  not,  as  had  been  asserted,  suggested  by  his  confessor 
at  the  instigation  of  "Wolsey.  So  he  may  have  thought. 
But  it  is  noteworthy,  that  this  date  follows  close  upon 
Wolsey's  first  great  disappointment,  of  being  raised  by  the 
Emperor's  aid  to  the  papal  chair  ;*  and  taking  this  fact  in 
connexion  with  his  subsequent  management,  we  cannot  but 
suspect  that  had  Charles  befriended  the  Cardinal,  Henry's 
conscience  would  have  slumbered  a  while  longer  in  regard 
to  his  marriage  with  Charles'  aunt.  However  that  may 
be,  it  was  from  this  time  Wolsey's  great  aim  to  unite  his 
master  in  a  league  with  the  King  of  France  against  the 
Emperor ;  and  as  one  important  link  in  the  intrigue,  to 
sunder  his  marriage  with  Katherine. 

Circumstances  favored  his  scheme.  Katherine  was  now 
long  past  her  bloom,  while  Henry  was  still  a  young  man  ; 
and  sickness  and  the  loss  of  children  had  given  her  a  dis- 
gust with  pomp  and  splendor,  and  a  sombreness  if  not  aus- 
terity of  temper,  very  uncongenial  to  his  gay  and  magnifi- 
cent spirit.  A  large  part  of  each  day  was  spent  in  melan- 
choly devotions  upon  her  bare  knees ;  while  she  counted 
every  moment  lost  which  was  given  to  the  decoration  of 
the  perishing  body.  When  to  these  things  is  added  Henry's 
disappointment  of  a  male  heir,  in  whom  the  succession  might 
be  settled  past  question,  it  is  obvious  how  easily  a  designing 
man  might  insinuate  doubts,  whether  he  had  not  incurred 

*  Henry's  Hist.  Vol.  XI,  p.  166. 


264  THE    ENGLISH   BIBLE. 

the  frown  of  heaven  by  entering  into  this  relation.  Henry's 
motives,  in  regard  to  any  step  of  his  life,  when  thoroughly 
sifted,  will  undoubtedly  show  a  much  larger  proportion  of 
selfishness  than  of  honor ;  still  his  early  movements  for  a 
divorce  from  Katherine  can  b^  fully  accounted  for,  with- 
out imputing  to  him  hypocrisy  or  falsehood.  But,  his 
mind  having  been  once  turned  in  this  direction,  it  was 
morally  certain  that  he  would  not  come  to  a  decision  ad- 
verse to  his  own  wishes.  The  two  prelates  who  at  his 
marriage  had  taken  opposite  sides  so  strongly,  were  still 
living ;  and  Fox  threatened  to  accuse  the  aged  Warham 
of  heresy,  for  denying  the  pope's  power  to  dispense  with 
the  laws  of  God.  But  Henry  was  no  longer  disposed  to 
be  guided  by  him  in  this  matter.  Not  only  Warham  but 
Thomas  Aquinas  was  found. to  speak  on  the  other  side ; 
and  Henry  became  immovably  convinced  that  he  ought  to 
separate  himself  from  Katherine.  He  even  composed  a 
book  on  the  subject,  in  which  he  settled  the  question  en- 
tirely to  his  own  satisfaction.  With  his  usual  headlong 
impetuosity  he  now  began  to  look  about  for  another 
wife ;  and  through  tlie  cardinal's  influence,  negotiations 
were  commenced  for  the  hand  of  the  Dutchess  Alenqon, 
sister  of  the  French  king. 

In  1527  a  special  messenger  was  dispatched  to  Rome  to 
lay  the  matter  before  the  Pope.  He  was  the  bearer  of  let- 
ters from  Henry  and  the  Cardinal ;  those  of  the  latter  urg- 
ing, in  the  most  importunate  manner,  immediate  attention 
to  this  important  case,  that  the  conscience  of  the  king 
might  be  relieved,  and  the  way  opened  for  a  marriage  more 
propitious  to  the  interests  of  the  kingdom.  Meantime, 
however,  the  sack  of  Rome,  and  the  imprisonment  of  Pope 
Clement,  had  reawakened  in  Wolsey's  mind  the  hope  of 


ANNE    BOLEYNrTHE    K.OYAE    PATRONESS.  265 

mounting  the  papal  throne  ;  and  to  secure  it  he  had  not 
scrupled  to  attempt  once  more  to  ingratiate  himself  with 
the  Emperor  Charles,  by  all  the  arts  of  flattery  and  in- 
trigue of  which  he  was  master.     On  receiving  a  contemp- 
tuous repulse,  he  was  so  transported  with  rage  as  to  write 
back,  that  "  if  he  would  not  make  him  Pope,  he  would 
make  such  a  ruffling  between  the  princes  as  was  not  this 
hundred  years,  to  make  the  Emperor  repent;  yea,  though 
it  should  cost  the  whole  realm  of  England."     The  Emper- 
or's reply  to  this  threat  shows  that  he  fully  recognized  the 
Cardinal  as  prime  mover  in  the  divorce.     "  Ye  go  about," 
says  he,  "  to  give  your  king  another  wife  ;  which,  if  ye  do, 
may  be  the  next  way  to  cost  you  the  realm  of  England."* 
But  while  the  matter  was  thus  hanging  in  suspense,  an 
event  occurred  which  gave  it  quite  an  unexpected  turn. 
This   was  the  appearance  at   the   English   court    of   the 
far-famed  Anne  Eoleyn,  daughter  of  Sir  Thomas  Boleyn, 
and  nearly  related  to  many  of  the  first  families   in    the 
kingdom.      In  her  ninth    year,   she   had  been   taken   to 
France    by   the    Princess    Mary,    Henry's    sister,    when 
she   went    thither    to    become    the  queen   of  Louis   XIT. 
On  the  return  of  Mary  to  England,  at  her  husband's  death, 
the  young  maid  of  honor  was  retained  in  the  service  of  the 
amiable  and  virtuous   Queen   Claude.     At  her  death,  iu 
1522,  Anne  returned  to  England;  and  having  become  au 
inmate  of  the  court,  as  one  of  Katharine's  maids  of  honor, 
won  the  heart  of  Percy,  eldest  son   of  the   Earl  of  Nor- 
thumberland,   then    in  the   service    of   Cardinal   Wolsey, 
The  proud  churchman,  who  hated  the  Norfolks,  to  whom 
Anne  was  nearly  related,  peremptorily  broke  off  the  match, 
and  dismissed  her  from  court.     This  arrogant  and  cruel 

■*  Eng.  Reformers,  vol.  I,  p.  466. 
12 


266  THE    ENGLISH    BIBLE. 

proceediug,  Anne  could  never  forget ;  and  when,  soon  after 
her  retirement,  her  faint-hearted  lover  submitted  to  marry 
another  lady,  she  returned  to  France,  and  became  one  of 
the  attendants  of  Margaret,  Duchess  of  Alen^on,  the  fa- 
vorite sister  of  Francis  I.  The  name  of  this  brilliant, 
high-souled,  and  virtuous  princess  is  a  sufficient  warrant, 
■with  all  who  believe  in  female  honor,  that  there  was  no 
stain  on  the  character  of  the  youthful  Anne.  With  her 
she  remained  three  years ;  and  from  her  imbibed  what,  iu 
the  eyes  of  Papists,  was  worse  than  immoralitj^ — the  prin- 
ciples of  the  Reformation.  For  Margaret  was  a  true 
Christian,  and  an  ardent  lover  of  the  Scriptures,  which  she 
read  daily,  and  commended  to  those  about  her,  as  the  best 
solace  and  guide  of  life.* 

*  "  You  ask  me,  my  children," — thus  she  expresses  herself  on  this  subject 
late  in  life — "  to  do  a  very  difficult  thing,  to  invent  a  diversion  that  will 
drive  away  your  ennui.  I  have  been  seeking  all  my  life  to  efFect  this  ;  but 
I  have  found  only  one  remedy,  which  is  reading  the  Holy  Scriptures.  In 
perusing  them,  my  mind  experiences  its  true  and  perfect  joy  ;  and  from 
this  pleasure  of  the  mind,  proceed  the  repose  and  health  of  the  body.  If 
you  desire  me  to  tell  you  what  I  do,  to  be  so  gay  and  well  at  my  advanced 
age,  it  is  because,  as  soon  as  I  get  up,  I  read  these  sacred  books.  Then  Z 
see  and  contemplate  the  will  of  God,  who  sent  his  Son  to  us  on  earth,  tc 
preach  that  Holy  Word  ;  and  to  announce  the  sweet  tidings  that  he  promises 
to  pardon  our  sins  and  extinguish  our  debts,  by  giving  us  his  Son  who 
loved  us,  and  who  suffered  and  died  for  our  sakes.  This  idea  so  delights 
me,  that  I  take  up  the  Psalms  and  sing  them  with  my  heart,  and  pronounce 
with  my  tongue  ns  humbly  as  possible  the  fine  hymns  with  which  the  Holy 
Spirit  inspired  David  and  the  sacred  authors.  The  pleasure  I  receive  trom 
this  exercise  so  transports  me,  that  I  consider  all  the  evils  that  may  happen 
to  me  in  the  day  to  be  real  blessings ;  for  I  place  him  in  my  heart  by  faith, 
who  endured  more  misery  for  me.  Before  I  sup,  I  retire  in  the  same  man- 
ner, to  give  my  soul  a  congenial  lesson.  At  night,  I  review  all  that  I  have 
done  in  the  day.  I  implore  pardon  for  my  faults  ;  I  thank  my  God  for  his 
favors  ;  and  I  lie  down  in  his  love,  in  his  fear,  and  in  his  peace,  free  from 
every  worldly  anxiety." 


ANNE  BOLEYN  :  THE  ROYAL  PATRONESS.      2G7 

In  the  household  of  this  accomplished  and  pious  prin- 
cess,  Anne  could  have  found  only  the  purest  influences  for 
her  heart;  while  the  brilliant  intellectual  circle  of  which 
Margaret  was  the  centre,  stimulated  her  active  mind,  and 
the  refinements  of  the  most  polished  court  in  Europe  left 
their  graceful  impress  on  her  manners.     She  returned  to 
England  at  the  age  of  twenty,  was  again  appointed  maid 
of  honor  to  the  Queen,  and  immediately  took  her  place  as 
the  brightest  star  in  the  court  of  Henry  VIII.      The  beauty 
by  which  she  eclipsed  all  her  associates,  was  increased  by 
the  modesty  of  her  attire  and  the  dignity  of  her  carriage ; 
and  it  should  be  remembered,  to  her  everlasting  honor  as 
a  woman,  that  she  used  her  power   as  the  acknowledged 
queen   of  fashion,  to   introduce   a  more  decorous  style  of 
dress  among  the  ladies  of  the  court.     The  spectacle  of  a 
court  belle  with  neck  and  bosom  modestly  covered,  was  so 
strange   at  that  day,  that  her  enemies  could  only  account 
for  it  on  the  supposition  of  some  great  personal  deformity, 
which  she  wished  to  conceal.     Burnet  says,  that  "  althouc^h 
the  Queen  had  afterwards  just  cause  to  be  displeased  with 
her  as  her  rival,  yet   she  carried  herself  so,  that  in  the 
whole  progress  of  the  suit,  I  never  find  the  Queen  herself, 
or  any  of  her  agents,  fix   the  least  ill  character  on  her, 
which  would  most   certainly  have    been  done  had  there 
been  any  just  cause  or  good  color  for  it !"  * 

These  charms,  combined  with  the  frankness  and  gaiety 
of  her  manners,  her  skill  in  music,  and  the  vivacity  of  her 
conversation,  soon  made  a  deep  impression  on  Henry's 
fancy ;  and  when  he  found  that  not  even  a  monarch  could 
tempt  her  from  the  path  of  virtue,  respect  was  joined  to 
admiration.  From  that  time,  he  resolved  to  make  her  his 
*  *  Hist,  of  the  Reformation,  vcl.  i.  p.  34. 


268  THE    ENGLISH    BIBLE. 

wife.  Wolsey  returned  just  then  from  France,  with  had 
tidings,  as  he  supposed,  for  his  master ;  namely,  the  fail- 
ure of  his  negotiations  for  the  hand  of  the  Princess  Ren^e. 
But  Henry  bade  hira  take  comfort,  since  he  had  himself 
made  choice  of  a  wife — Anne  Boleyn.  Confounded  at  this 
announcement,  Wolsey  threw  himself  on  his  knees,  and 
by  every  argument  tried  to  win  him  from  his  purpose; 
but  in  vain.  He  soon  perceived,  that  while  the  divorce 
was  now  deprived  of  all  those  features  on  which  he  had 
counted  for  his  own  advancement,  it  must  yet  be  urged  on 
with  redoubled  energy,  if  he  would  not  lose  all  influence 
with  Henry.  Accordingly,  he  withdrew  his  objections, 
fell  in  heartily  with  the  King's  views,  and  paid  assiduous 
"homage  to  the  rising  star. 

Besides  Wolsey,  a  large  proportion  of  the  clergy  lent 
themselves  with  enthusiasm  to  the  king's  wishes.  Pope 
Clement  also  professed,  at  first,  the  utmost  readiness  to 
oblige  a  sovereign  to  whom  the  Holy  See  owed  such  a  debt 
of  gratitude ;  and  that  he  had  excused  himself  from  imme- 
diate action  on  the  ground  of  policy,  merely,  and  not  of 
iiLj  conscientious  scruples.  When,  indeed,  he  found  that 
he  could  not  oblige  Henry  without  incurring  the  mortal 
enmity  of  Charles,  he  receded  from  his  first  position,  and 
commenced  that  course  of  temporising  policy  by  which,  af- 
ter six  years  of  vexatious  subterfuges  and  delays,  Henry 
was  driven  to  take  the  remedy  into  his  own  hands.  At  length 
by  the  advice  of  Cranmer  he  appealed  to  the  Romish  Uni- 
versities of  England  and  the  continent,  and  received  an  al- 
most unanimous  verdict  in  his  favor.  So  it  was  with  the 
majority  both  of  Romish  and  Reformed  scholars  and  divines, 
an  immense  number  of  whom  were  consulted  by  agents  of 
the  king.     This  result  haf  been  ascribed  to  bribery  ;  but 


ANNE  BOLEYN  :  THE  KOYAL  TATRONESS.       269 

Charles  lavished  money  on  the  other  side  yet  more  freely, 
and  if  that  were  the  sole  moving  power  he  should  have 
gained  the  day.  The  true  explanation  is  to  be  found  in 
the  almost  universal  prevalence  of  the  opinion,  that  the 
Levitical  law  of  marriage  was  of  perpetual  authority,  not 
liable  to  be  s6t  aside  even  by  the  Pope  himself.* 

In  1530,  Henry  renewed  his  application  to  Rome,  but 
could  gain  nothing  beyond  flattery  and  evasive  promises. 
Seeing  how  the  case  must  turn,  he  now  prepared  with  great 
shrewdness  for  the  approaching  storm.  He  first  laid  the 
matter  before  parliament,  in  the  winter  of  1531.  Sir 
Thomas  More,  then  Lord  Chancellor,  attended  by  twelve 
peers,  came  to  the  house  of  commons  and  made  a  speech 
in  explanation  of  the  king's  motives  in  desiring  the  divorce, 
and  exhibited  before  them  the  decisions  of  the  universities, 
together  with  numerous  books  and  other  writings  in  justi- 
fication of  his  procedure.  This  being  done,  the  chancellor 
added  :  "  Now,  you  in  this  house,  report  in  your  countries 
what  you  have  seen  and  heard ;  and  then  all  men  shall 
openly  perceive  that  the  king  hath  not  attempted  this  mat- 
ter of  will  or  pleasure,  as  some  strangers  report,  but  only 
for  the  discharge  of  his  conscience,  and  surety  of  the  suc- 
cession of  this  realm." 

His  next  step  was  to  secure  the  concurrence  of  the 
clergy.  He  was  well  aware  that  they  could  not  be  relied 
on,  in  the  impending  conflict  with  the  papacy,  unless  they 
were  first  crippled  in  their  wealth  and  power.  The  way 
for  this  had  already  been  prepared  a  year  before.  By  act- 
ing as  Papal  Legate,  Wolsey  had  incurred  the  heavy  pen- 
alties of  the  statute  of  premunire,  which  forbade  the  ex- 

*  See  Bui:nett's  account  (Hist.  Kef.  vol.  ii,)  of  all  the  facts  connected  with 
this  transaction. 


270  THE    ENGLISH    BIBLE. 

ercise  of  that  ofl&ce  as  contrary  to  the  allegiance  due  to  the 
king.  To  be  sure  he  had  the  sanction  of  Henry,  under  the 
great  seal,  for  so  doing ;  but  to  appease  his  angry  master, 
"who  had  enough  real  causes  of  ofifence  ao;ainsthim  to  ensure 
his  ruin,  he  pleaded  guilty  to  the  false  charge,  and  submit- 
ted to  the  forfeiture  of  his  enormous  property  without  a 
murmur.  But  by  this  course  he  left  all  who  had  acted 
under  his  legantine  authority  without  defence.  The  saga- 
cious and  far-seeing  Thomas  Crumwell  had  pointed  out, 
immediately  on  the  fall  of  the  great  favorite,  the  king's 
true  policy  in  relation  to  the  bishops ;  and  the  plan  nursed 
for  a  year  in  secret,  was  now  put  in  execution.  A  bill  of  in- 
dictment was  filed  in  the  court  of  King's  Bench,  against  the 
entire  body  of  the  clergy,  for  their  violation  of  the  law  ofpre- 
mu}iire,  by  acting  under  the  legantine  authority  of  the  car- 
dinal ;  as  also,  for  their  oath  of  obedience  to  the  pope,  con- 
trary to  their  fealty  to  their  sovereign  lord  the  king.  By 
these  offences  they  had,  it  was  declared,  "  forfeited  to  the 
king  all  their  goods  and  chattels,  lands,  possessions,  and 
whatsoever  livings  they  had."  Terrified  by  the  fate  of 
Wolsey,  and  perceiving  that  their  master  at  Rome  had  no 
power  to  aid  them  in  this  exigency,  they  yielded  to  the 
iron  will  of  Henry,  and  agreed  to  pay  as  a  ransom  for  their 
property,  the  sum  of  one  hundred  eighteen  thousand  and 
forty  pounds,  (equivalent  to  at  least  a  million  and  a  half 
pounds  sterling  of  the  present  time,)  to  be  paid  into  the 
king's  treasury  in  five  equal  annual  instalments. 

But  this  was  not  enough.  As  they  had  broken  their 
allegiance  to  the  king  by  their  oath  to  the  pope,  they  were 
informed  that  the  money  would  not  be  accepted,  unless 
paid  to  the  king  as  "  the  Protector,  and  Supreme  Head 
OF  THE  Church  and  the  Clergy  of  England."     At  this 


ANNE  BOLEYN  :  THE  ROYAL  PATRONESS.       271 

they  hesitated,  but  after  long  conferences  and  arguments, 
pro  and  con,  they  agreed  to  it  substantially,  though  modi- 
fied in  form  as  follows  :  "  We  recognize  his  Majesty  to  be 
the  singular  (sole)  Protector  of  the  Church  and  Clergy  of 
England,  and  our  onlyv  sovereign  Lord,  and,  as  far  as  by 
the  law  of  Christ  is  lawful,  also  our  Supreme  Head."  The 
first  decisive  blow  had  now  been  struck  at  the  long  existing 
connexion  between  the  English  government  and  the 
Papacy. 

Yet,  even  cow,  Henry  did  not  in  his  heart  wish  to  sep- 
arate from  Rome.  All  this  parade  of  energy  was  intended 
rather  to  terrify  the  pope  into-concurrence  with  his  wishes,  in 
regard  to  the  divorce,  than  as  an  absolute  renunciation  of 
his  authority.  Still  less  did  Clement  desire  to  sacrifice 
bis  hold  on  England,  "  that  garden  of  delights,"  for  the 
sake  of  Katherine.  Agents  were  accordingly  sent  to 
Rome  by  Henry;  and  the  King  of  France  interested  him- 
self warmly  in  endeavoring  to  avert  the  threatened  rup- 
ture. But  the  influence  of  the  Emperor  was  too  potent ; 
and  early  in  January,  1533,  a  papal  bull  arrived  in  Eng- 
land commanding  Henry,  on  pain  of  excommunication,  to 
renounce  all  connexion  with  Anne  Boleyn,  and  to  reinstate 
Katherine  in  all  her  rights  and  dignities.  The  reponso  to 
this  mandate  was  his  marriage  with  Anne  on  the  25th  of 
the  same  month.  The  elevation  of  Cranmer  to  the  pri- 
mac}',  his  formal  sentence  pronouncing  the  marriage  with 
Katherine  null  and  void,  and  the  final  steps  by  which  tho 
organic  relation  with  Rome  was  forever  sundered,  soon 
followed. 

It  would  seem  hardly  credible,  were  it  not^  recorded  in 
authentic  history,  that  during  nearly  the  whole  period  era- 
braced  in  the  foregoing  rapid  sketch,  Henry  and  the  bish- 


272  THE    ENGLISH    BIBLE. 

ops  had  been  bosom  friends  in  persecution.  Especially 
were  the  years  1529 — 32,  when  Henry's  resentment  against 
the  court  of  Rome  was  at  its  climax,  memorable  for  the 
close  union  between  the  State  and  the  Church  for  this  ob- 
ject ;  when,  under  the  guidance  of  Sir  Thomas  More,  the 
bond  of  amity  was  sealed  in  the  blood  of  some  of  Eng- 
land's noblest  martyrs.  So  much  connexion  had  this  royal 
movement  with  the  true  reformation  then  going  on  in  the 
kingdom  !  Whether  it  would  not  have  worked  out  a  purer 
result  without  that  aid  may  well  be  questioned. 

In  reviewing  the  history  of  the  divorce,  it  seems  strange 
that  the  injured  Katherine  should  have  found  so  few  men 
of  eminence,  in  the  church,  to  defend  her  cause.  Fisher, 
bishop  of  Rochester,  was  her  chief  advocate  and  her  con- 
stant friend ;  but  there  was  no  other  one  who  voluntarily 
risked  life  or  station  for  her  sake.  It  might  have  been 
expected  that  Sir  Thomas  More,  with  his  high  sense  of 
honor  and  his  strong  convictions  of  the  justice  of  her  cause, 
would  come  forth  as  the  champion  of  the  unprotected  Queen. 
But  such  was  not  the  case.  When  peremptorily  required 
by  the  king  to  declare  what,  in  his  view,  the  laws  of  God 
and  the  decisions  of  the  Fathers  demanded  in  the  case,  he 
wos,  indeed,  true  to  his  sense  of  right.  But  his  reluctance 
to  take  a  decided  stand  for  the  weaker  party,  the  extreme 
humility  with  which  he  disclaims  all  ability  to  judge  on 
so  profound  a  point,  his  charity  towards  those  whose  de- 
cision differed  from  his,  and  the  obsequious  deference  of 
his  manner  towards  the  king,*  do  not  well  bear  to  be  set 
side  by  side  with  his  confident  and  haughty  bearing 
towards  those  poor  defenceless  creatures  who  were  guilty 

*See  his  Letters  frou.  the  Tower,  particularly  those  to  the  King  and  to 
Crumwell. 


ANNE  BOLEYN  :  THE  ROYAL  PATRONESS.       273 

of  a  faith  different  from  his  own.  On  the  subject  of  here- 
sy, he  was  not  at  all  distrustful  of  his  own  judgment, 
either  of  Scripture  or  the  Fathers.  He  bad  not  modestly 
shrunk  from  spurring  on  the  persecuting  zeal  of  Henry, 
when  the  fortunes  and  lives  of  bis  most  virtuous  and  loyal 
subjects  were  at  stake,  or  feared  to  tell  him  that  to  show 
mercy  was  to  peril  his  soul's  salvation.  A  man  thus  bold 
against  the  weak  and  thus  timid  before  the  strong,  cannot 
stand  very  high  on  the  list  of  moral  heroes. 

Bat  there  was  a  man,  one  urged,  moreover,  by  the  most 
powerful  motives  to  make  himself  acceptable  to  his  sover- 
eign in  this  matter,  who  dared  to  come  forward,  uncalled, 
and  regardless  of  consequences,  to  speak  to  him  the  honest 
truth  in  the  sight  of  God.     That  man  was  William  Tyn- 

DALE. 

Tyndale's  pen  was,  beyond  question,  one  of  the  great 
potencies  of  the  time.  The  fearless  conflict  it  had  long 
waged  with  sin  in  high  places,  its  bold  advocacy  of  the 
rights  of  conscience,  and  the  claims  of  Scripture,  and  not 
less  its  devout  and  beautiful  expositions  of  pure  and  unde- 
filed  religion,  had  made  it  a  terror  to  the  priesthood,  and 
an  instrument  mighty  to  mould  the  convictions  of  the 
people.  Not  a  word  he  wrote  fell  to  the  ground.  In 
spite  of  statutes,  proclamations,  and  the  most  rigid  espion- 
age, every  tract  and  treatise  that  came  from  his  pen,  was 
speedily  telling  on  public  opinion  through  the  length  and 
breadth  of  England.  Could  he  now  but  have  seen  in  this 
matter  with  Henry's  eyes,  what  a  moment  was  this  for 
gaining  the  King's  ear  to  a  more  favorable  reception  of 
his  views,  for  inclining  his  heart  towards  the  persecuted, 
and  gaining  free  admission  for  the  Scriptures  !  By  pleas- 
ant and  no  doubt  sincere  counsel,  seasonably  given,  Cran- 
12* 


274  THE    ENGLISH    BIBLE. 

mer  had  stepped  at  once  into  tlie  path  of  promotion,  and 
gained  many  important  advantages  for  the  cause  of  truth. 
And  if  conscience  did  not  allow  Tyndale  to  take  the  same 
course,  should  he  not,  for  the  sake  of  that  cause,  at  least 
have  observed  the  prudent  policy  of  silence  ? 

But  policy  was  a  word  unknown  to  Tyndale.  His 
confidence  in  truth  had  a  simplicity  and  entireness,  which 
to  the  half-hearted  often  looks  like  rashness.  He  saw  a 
great  wrong  about  to  be  perpetrated  under  cover  of  res- 
pect for  God's  law ;  a  wrong  not  merely  to  the  immediate 
sufi'erer,  but  to  that  institution  which  Grod  had  ordained  as 
the  chief  guardian  of  social  order  and  virtue.  The  general 
corruption  of  the  marriage  relation  in  England,  of  which  he 
gives  a  frightful  picture  in  his  "  Obedience  of  a  Christiau 
Man,"  had  long  been  among  his  heaviest  charges  against 
the  clergy.  But  still  other  interests  were  involved  in  the 
present  case.  The  project  of  divorce  had,  as  he  believcvi, 
its  origin  in  the  selfish  ambition  of  an  unprincipled  priest, 
and  was  part  and  parcel  of  the  policy  steadily  pursued  for 
ages  previous,  which  aimed  to  make  the  secular  govern- 
ments of  the  world  mere  tools  for  promoting  the  power  and 
glory  of  the  priesthood.  Civil  and  foreign  discords  were 
the  means  by  which  they  rose.  Perjured  princes,  ancient 
bonds  of  national  amity  broken  without  cause,  national  in- 
dustry destroyed,  the  wealth  of  kingdoms  and  the  blood 
of  thousands  of  innocent  men  lavished  in  needless  wars, 
were  mere  sport  to  these  proud  hierarchs,  who,  on  the 
wreck  thus  made,  planted  the  thrones  from  which  they  lord- 
ed it  over  mankind.  Under  these  circumstances,  Tyndale 
could  not  refrain  from  attempting  to  open  the  eyes  of  his 
king.  "  I  did  my  diligence,"  he  says,  "  of  a  long  season, 
to  know  what  reasons  our  holy  prelates  should  make  for 


ANNE  BOLEYN  :  THE  ROYAL  PATRONESS.       275 

their  divorcement ;  but  I  could  not  come  by  them.  I 
searched  what  might  be  said  for  their  part,  but  I  could  find 
no  lawful  cause,  of  myself,  by  any  Scripture  that  I  ever 
read.  I  communed  with  divers  learned  men  of  the  mat- 
ter ;  which  also  could  tell  me  no  other  way  than  I  have 
shewed.  Then  I  considered  the  falsehood  of  our  Spiritu- 
ality, how  it  is  but  their  old  practice  and  a  common  cus- 
tom, yea,  and  a  sport  to  separate  matrimony,  for  to  make 
division  where  such  marriage  made  .  unity  and  peace. 
Wherefore  I  could  hot  but  declare  my  mind  to  discharge 
my  conscience  withal." 

"The  Practice  of  Prelates;  ichctlicr  the  King's 
Grace  viay  be  separated  from  his  Queen  because  she  was 
his  brotherh  wifey  Such  was  the  outspoken  title  of  the 
book  which  he  sent  forth  on  this  great  question.  Its  first 
object  was  to  give  a  brief  sketch  of  the  successive  steps 
by  which  the  papal  power  had  risen  to  its  present  height, 
and  gained  such  dominion  over  the  consciences  of  princes 
as  to  be  able  to  turn  them  in  any  direction  for  its  own 
advancement.  The  following  illustration  of  the  growth  of 
this  terrible  power  is  a  happy  specimen  of  his  animated 
style  of  thought,  and  of  his  pure  and  vigorous  English  : 

"  And  to  see  how  our  holy  father  came  up,  mark  the  ensample  of  an  ivy 
tree  ;  first  it  springeth  out  of  the  earth,  and  then  awhile  creepeth  along  by 
the  ground  till  it  findeth  a  great  tree  ;  then  it  joineth  itself  beneath  alow 
unto  the  body  of  the  tree,  and  creepeth  up  a  little  and  a  little,  fair  and 
softly.  And  at  the  beginning,  while  it  is  yet  thin  and  small,  that  the  burden 
is  not  perceived,  it  seemeth  glorious  to  garnish  the  tree  in  winter,  and 
to  bear  off  the  tempests  of  the  weather.  But  in  the  mean  season,  it  thrust- 
eth  roots  into  the  bark  of  the  tree  to  hold  fast  withal,  and  ceaseth  notto 
climb  up  till  it  be  at  the  top  and  above  all.  And  then  it  sendeth  his 
branches  along  by  the  branches  of  the  tree,  and  overgroweth  all,  and  wax- 
eth  great,  heavy,  and  thick  ;  and  sucketh  the  moisture  so  sore  out  of  the  troo 
and  its  branches,  that  it  choketh  and  stillelh  them.     And  theu  the  foul 


276  THE    ENGLISH    BIBLE. 

stinking  ivy  waxeth  mighty  in  the  stump  of  the  tree.,  and  becometh  a  seat 
and  a  nest  for  all  unclean  birds,  and  for  blind  owls  which  hawk  in  the  dark, 
and  dare  not  come  to  the  light." 

Passing  gradually  down  to  "  tlie  Practice  of  our  time," 
the  reformer  depicts  the  history  of  Wolsey,  his  mean 
beginning,  the  arts  by  which  he  wormed  himself  into  the 
king's  affections,  and  gained  entire  supremacy  over  all 
that  were  about  him,  placing  and  displacing  at  his  pleasure 
all  officers  around  his  person,  even  to  the  court  chaplains, 
the  king's  confessor,  and  the  very  ladies  of  the  queen  ;  till 
"finally,  Thomas  Wolsey  became  what  he  would,  even  por- 
ter of  heaven,  so  that  no  man  could  enter  into  promotion 
but  through  him."  To  his  intrigues  he  ascribes  all  that 
the  nation  had  suffered  for  the  last  twenty  years,  ending 
in  this  scheme  for  separating  Henry  from  his  wife,  which 
was  nothing  else  than  a  part  of  the  plan  by  which  the  am- 
bitious prelate  was  to  seat  himself  in  the  chair  of  St.  Peter. 

Tyndale  then  turns  to  an  examination  of  the  divorce 
by  Scripture,  the  conclusion  of  which  is,  that  there  is  no 
warrant  for  it  in  the  word  of  Grod ;  and  that  to  defy  thus 
the  word  of  God  is  to  ensure  speedy  and  terrible  judg- 
ments on  the  land. 

Through  the  whole  discussion,  the  king  is  treated  with 
the  utmost  tenderness  and  respect,  yet  with  a  stern  fidelity, 
not  unlike  that  of  John  the  Baptist  when  rebuking  the 
guilty  Herod.  He  thus  manfully  vindicates  his  right  to 
warn  his  sovereign  with  all  freedom  against  transgression 
of  the  laws  of  God  : 

'•Some  man  might  haply  say,  that  though  a  great  man  might  be  content 
to  have  his  deeds  compared  unto  the  laws  of  God,  he  would  disdain  yet  to 
have  so  vile  a  wretch  as  I  am  to  dispute  them.  I  answer  that  it  is  not  my 
fault,  but  God's,  which,  for  the  most  part  even  chooseth  the  vilest,  to  con- 


ANNE  BOLEYN:  THE  ROYAL  PATRONESS.       277 

found  tho  glorious ;  whieli  not  only  clothed  liis  Son  witli  our  vile  nature,  but 
made  him  also  of  the  very  lowest  sort  of  men,  even  five  hundred  steps  below 
the  degree  of  a  cardinal,  and  sent  him  to  rebuke  the  scribes  and  pbariseeg 
which  sat  on  Moses'  seat.  And  the  glorious  scribes  and  pharisees,  for  all 
their  holiness,  rebuked  not  Herod  ;  nor  Caiaphas  and  Annas  with  all  their 
highness  ;  but  vile  John  the  Baptist.  Ey  what  authority  ?  Verily,  by  tho 
authority  of  God's  word  ;  which  only,  whatsoever  garment  she  wear,  ought 
to  have  all  authority  among  them  that  have  professed  it.  That  word  is  tho 
chiefest  of  the  apostles,  and  pope,  and  Christ's  vicar,  and  ^gad  of  the  church, 
and  the  head  of  the  general  council.  And  unto  the  authority  of  that  ought 
all  the  children  of  God  to  hearken  without  respect  to  persons,  for  they  that 
are  of  God  hear  God's  word.  And  Christ's  sheep  bear  Christ's  voice ;  yoa, 
though  he  speak  through  a  calf" 

The  Practice  of  Prelates  reached  Englaud  iu  the  year 
1530  ;  but  whatever  effect  it  had  on  the  views  of  others,  it 
did  not  move  the  king  from  his  purpose.  That  he  felt  its 
power,  is  evident  from  his  violent  and  lasting  resentment 
against  its  author.  The  story  of  his  revenge  runs  through 
the  sis  succeeding  years,  and  closes  only  with  the  death 
of  his  reprover. 

It  is  with  all  the  more  interest  that  we  note  the  evi- 
dences of  a  far  different  spirit,  in  one  scarcely  less  inter- 
ested than  Henry  himself  in  the  successful  issue  of  the 
affair.  We  are  told  much  of  Anne  Boleyn's  resentment 
against  Wolsey  for  his  rude  and  cruel  interference  with 
her  early  connexion  with  Percy ;  and  for  his  temporary  op- 
position to  her  marriage  with  Henry.  If  it  was  a  fault  to 
loathe  this  unprincipled  and  sensual  man,  and  to  use  her 
influence  to  destroy  his  power  over  the  king,  no  doubt  she 
must  be  pronounced  guilty.  But  we  find  no  trace  of  any 
resentment  towards  Tyndale.  She  cannot  have  been  igno- 
rant to  which  side  of  the  question  he  had  lent  his  power- 
ful pen.  Yet  during  her  whole  course  as  queen,  her  influ- 
ence was  steadily  and  courageously  given  to  the  further- 


278  THE    ENGLISH    BIBLE. 

ance  of  those  same  views,  for  the  sake  of  wliicli  he  had  been 
so  long  an  exile,  and  the  object  of  relentless  persecution 
from  king  and  clergy.  From  the  date  of  her  marriage,  the 
working  of  a  new  and  powerful  element  was  felt  in  the  Eng- 
lish court.  Fose  says  of  the  period  immediately  preceding  : 
"  So  great  was  the  trouble  of  those  times  that  it  would 
overcharge  my  story  to  recite  the  names  of  all  them  which, 
during  those  bitter  days,  before  the  coming  in  of  Queen 
Annc^  either  were  driven  out  of  the  realm,  or  were  cast 
out  from  their  goods  and  houses,  or  brought  to  open  shame 
by  abjuration."  The  "  new  learning  "  came  gradually  into 
the  ascendant;  Cranmer,  Latimer,  and  others  of  like  char- 
acter, men  who  pleaded  openly  for  the  Bible  in  the  vernac- 
ular, were  promoted  to  positions  of  high  responsibility  ;  the 
Scriptures  came  more  and  more  freely  into  England,  and 
were  read  without  molestation. 

Her  agency  in  these  changes  cannot,  in  general,  be  di- 
rectly traced;  but  the  unanimous  judgment  of  all  parties 
at  the  time,  indicates  her  as  the  main  spring  of  influence 
in  this  direction.  In  one  instance  of  no  little  interest, 
we  have  the  direct  proof,  in  her  own  handwriting,  of  her 
great  power  and  the  use  she  made  of  it.  Richard  Ilarman 
will  be  recollected  as  the  English  merchant  at  Antwerp, 
who  had  taken  so  forward  a  part  in  bringing  the  early  edi- 
tions of  Tyndale's  New  Testament  into  England.  For 
this,  he  had  not  only  sufi"ered  imprisonment  and  heavy  pe- 
cuniary loss,  but,  what  to  a  man  of  his  character  was  a  far 
severer  calamity,  expulsion  from  the  Honorable  Company 
of  English  Merchant  Adventurers  ;  and  this  unrighteous 
action  had  never  been  reversed.  But  the  very  year  after 
Anne  became  Queen,  Harman  ventured  into  England  to 
seek  redress.     His  application  soems  to  have  been  made 


ANNE  BOLEYN:  THE  ROYAL  PATRONESS.      279 

du  ctly  to  her,  as  tlie  known  friend  of  the  Reformation; 
and  the  result — won  from  the  King,  no  doubt,  by  her  per- 
suasions—  appears  in  the  following  letter  from  her  to 
Crumwell,  the  State  Secretary: 

Anne  the  Queen. 

Trusty  and  right  well  beloved,  we  greet  you  well.  And  whereas,  we  bo 
credibly  informed  that  the  bearer  hereof — Richard  Herman — merchant  and 
citizen  of  Antwerp,  in  Brabant,  was,  in  the  time  of  the  late  Lord  Cardinal, 
put  and  expelled  from  his  freedom  and  fellowship,  of  and  in  the  English 
house  there,  for  nothing  else  (as  he  affirmeth)  but  only  for  that  he,  still 
like  a  good  Christian  man,  did  both  with  his  goods  and  policy,  to  his  great 
hurt  and  hindrance  in  this  world,  help  to  the  setting  forth  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment in  English.  We  therefore  desire  and  instantly  pray  you,  that  with 
all  speed  and  favor  convenient,  ye  will  cause  this  good  and  honest  merchant, 
being  my  Lord's  true,  faithful,  and  loving  subject,  to  be  restored  to  his 
pristine  freedom,  liberty,  and  fellowship  aforesaid,  and  the  sooner  at  this 
our  request,  and  at  your  good  leisure  to  hear  him  in  such  things,  as  he  hath 
to  make  further  relation  unto  you  in  this  behalf.  Given  under  our  signet, 
at  my  Lord's  manor  of  Greenwich,  the  thirteenth  day  of  May.  To  our 
trusty  and  right  well  beloved,  Thomas  Crumwell,  Squire,  Chief  Secretary 
unto  my  Lord,  the  King's  Highness. 

The  tone  of  this  royal  epistle — royal  in  the  best  sense 
of  the  word — cannot  but  strike  the  reader  with  admira- 
tion. It  is  to  be  remembered,  that  though  Bibles  were 
now  allowed  to  come  silently  into  the  kingdom,  it  was  still 
in  violation  of  express  law  and  statute,  and  against  the 
opposition  of  a  powerful  and  embittered  party.  Yet  she 
takes  pains  to  state  precisely  the  offence  for  which  Harman 
had  suffered,  and  justifies  it  as  the  right  and  praiseworthy 
act  of  "  a  good  Christian  man."  As  Anderson  well  re- 
marks, "  no  «zrt;?,,  either  of  office  or  influence,  ever  so  ex- 
pressed himself  while  Tyndale  lived." 

Tyndale  had,  without  doubt,  already  been  made  ac- 
quainted with  the  noble  stand  taken  for  the  truth,  by  tho 


280  THE    ENGLISH    BIBLE, 

woman  wliose  elevation  he  had  honestly  opposed ;  and 
Richard  Harman  would  not  now  fail,  on  his  return  to 
Antwerp,  to  inform  his  friend  of  the  agency  through  which 
his  errand  had  reached  so  happy  an  issue.  Tyndale  was 
then  engaged  in  publishing  his  revised  New  Testament. 
His  recognition  of  the  services  of  Anne  to  the  cause  he 
loved,  was  equally  appropriate  and  delicate — a  beautifully 
printed  and  illuminated  copy  of  the  divine  word,  on  vellum, 
with  the  Queen's  name,  Anna  E-eglna  Anglic,  arranged 
in  large  ornamental  letters  around  the  title  page.*  In 
the  narrative  yet  to  be  given  of  the  persecution  to  which 
Tyndale  was  afterwards  subjected,  we  shall  find  traces  of 
her  personal  interest  in  the  Reformer,  prompting  measures 
which  might  have  saved  him,  had  she  been  seconded  by 
hearts  as  brave  and  unselfish  as  her  own. 

The  close  of  the  year  1534  was  marked  by  a  strange 
event ;  no  other  than  a  petition  to  the  King  from  the 
Clergy  in  Convocation  assembled,  for  a  translation  of  the 
Scriptures  into  English.  "  This  good  motion,"  as  we  learn 
from  Strype,t  was  made  and  warmly  advocated  by  Cran- 
mer.  But  it  was  not  carried  through  without  violent  op- 
position from  the  Popish  party,  headed  by  Stephen  Gardi- 
ner, Bishop  of  Winchester,  who  declared,  that  "  all  the 
heresies  and  extravagant  opinions  then  in  Germany,  and 
thence  coming  over  to  England,  sprang  from  the  free  use 
of  the  Scriptures.  .  .  .  And  to  offer  the  Bible  in  the  Eng- 
lish tongue  to  the  whole  nation  during  these  distractions, 
would  prove  the  greatest  snare  that  could  be.";}: 

The  next  year,  Cranmer  made  a  vigorous  attempt  to 
consummate  this  movement,  by  securing  a  version  of  the 

*Anderson,  Yol,  i.  p.  413.  -f  Memorials  of  Archbishop  Cranmer,  Vol.  i.  p.  34. 
J  Burnet. 


ANNE  BOLEYN  :  THE  ROYAL  PATRONESS.      281 

Scriptures,  which  might  be  circulated  -with  the  advantage 
of  the  King's  sanction.  Unwilling  to  wait  till  a  new 
translation  from  the  original  could  be  prepared,  and  unable 
to  use  Tyndalc's,  which  was  prohibited  by  law,  he  adopted 
the  following  plan,  as  related  by  Strype  in  his  life:* 

"  And  that  it  might  not  be  prohi'oitecl,  as  it  had  been,  upon  pretence  of 
the  ignorance  or  unfaithfulness  of  the  translators,  he  proceeded  in  this 
method  ;  First,  he  began  with  the  translation  of  the  New  Testament — taking 
an  old  English  translation  thereof, "f  which  he  divided  into  nine  or  ten  parts, 
causing  each  part  to  be  written  at  large  in  a  paper  book,  and  then  to  be  sent 
to  the  best  learned  bishops  and  others,  to  the  intent  they  should  make  a 
perfect  correction  thereof.  And  when  they  had  done,  he  required  them  to 
send  back  their  parts  so  corrected,  unto  him  at  Lambeth,  by  a  day  limited 
for  that  purpose  ;  and  the  same  course,  no  question,  he  took  with  the  Old 
Testament." 

How  cordial  one  of  the  Bishops  was  to  this  plan,  is  seen 
in  the  anecdote  told  by  Strype  of  Stokesly,  Bishop  of  Lon- 
don, who  returned  his  portion  uncorrected,  with  the 
answer  :  "  I  marvel  what  my  Lord  of  Canterbury  mean- 
eth,  that  thus  abuseth  the  people,  in  giving  them  liberty 
to  read  the  Scriptures,  which  doth  nothing  else  but  infect 
them  with  heresy.  I  have  bestowed  never  an  hour  on  my 
portion,  nor  never  will.  And  therefore  my  Lord  shall 
have  his  book  again,  for  I  will  never  be  guilty  of  bringing 
the  simple  people  into  error." 

Of  the  secret  efforts  of  Gardiner  to  frustrate  this  under- 
taking, as  well  as  of  Anne  Boleyn's  agency  in  securing 
a  decision  in  its  favor  from  the  King,  and  of  the  cause 

*  Strype's  Cranmer,  Vol.  i.  p.  48. 

")"  It  is  with  pleasure  that  we  recognize  in  this  "  old  English  translation," 
the  venerable  version  of  Wickliffe.  Of  course  it  could  be  no  other.  The 
awkward  device  of  transcribing  one  so  well  known  as  Tyndalc's — which  is 
Anderson's  supposition — must  immediately  have  betrayed  itself ;  but  a 
work  so  rare  as  Wicklifife's,  newly  copied,  could  with  difficulty  be  identified 
as  his,  and  might  therefore  well  answer  Cranmer's  purpose. 


282  THE    ENGLISH    BIBLE. 

of  its  final  failure,  we  are  informed  by  Arcbbisliop  Parker.* 
Being  at  this  time  cliaplain  to  the  Queen,t  be  had  the  best 
opportunity  for  understanding  the  whole  transaction. 

"  His  royal  Majesty,"  says  Parker,  "  was  petitioned  by  the  whole  Synod, 
to  give  commandment  that  the  Holy  Scriptures  might  be  translated  into  the 
English  tongue  ;  for  so  it  could  be  more  easily  discerned  by  all,  what  was 
agreeable  to  the  Divine  Law.  To  this,  Stephen  Gardiner — the  King's  most 
Becret  counsellor — made  resistance  as  covertly  as  possible.  But  through  the 
grace  and  intercession  of  our  most  illustrious  and  virtuous  mistress  the 
Queen,  permission  was  at  length  obtained  from  the  King,  that  the  Holy 
Scriptures  should  be  printed  and  deposited  in  every  church,  in  a  place  where 
the  people  might  read  them  ;  which  grant  of  the  King  did  not  go  into  effect, 
because  this  most  illustrious  Queen  soon  after  suffered  death." 

Nor  was  this  the  only  fruit  of  her  zeal  for  the  Scriptures 
in  the  language  of  the  people.  Before  the  close  of  this 
same  year,  Coverdale  bad  completed  and  carried  through  the 
press  a  translation  of  the  whole  Bible,  which  owed  much  to 
her  patronage,  and  was  dedicated  to  her,  conjointly  with  the 
King.  Of  her  connection  with  it,  there  is  suflBcient  evi- 
dence in  the  fact,  that  her  sudden  fall  arrested  it  on  the 
eve  of  publication.  Of  this  version,  a  more  particular  ac- 
count will  be  given  in  the  proper  place. 

Besides  all  this,  there  were  now  pending  negotiations 
for  a  politico-religious  league  between  Henry  and  the 
Protestant  princes  of  Germany,  which  threatened  to  es- 
tablish the  Augsburg  Confession  as  the  authoritative 
standard  of  belief  in  England.  "  There  were  many  con- 
ferences," says  Burnet,:}:  "  between  Fox,  Bishop  of  Here- 
ford, Doctor  Barnes,  and  some  others,  with  the  Lutheran 
divines,  for  accommodating  the  differences  between  them, 

*  De  Antiq.  Ecel.  Brit.  p.  385,  (Harvard  Univ.  Library.) 
t  Strype's  Life  and  A  ;ts  of  Parker,  p.  7. 
}  Hist.  Ref.,  p.  146. 


ANNE  EOLEYN  :  THE  ROYAL  PATRONESS.      283 

and  the  thing  was  in  a  good  forwardness.  All  which  was 
imputed  to  the  Queen." 

It  is  not  strange  then,  that  she  should  have  become  an 
object  of  intense  hostility  to  the  popish  party,  and  that 
her  fall  should  be  regarded  as  essential  to  the  restoration 
of  the  ancient  order  of  things.  Henry's  wayward  passions 
soon  furnished  the  opportunity.  Having  fixed  his  affec- 
tions on  Jane  Seymour,  he  became  impatient  to  rid  him- 
self of  the  woman  whom  he  had  sought  with  siich  un- 
wearied pertinacity,  and  for  whose  sake  he  had  ventured 
and  sacrificed  so  much.  The  measures  into  which  he  had 
been  driven  by  the  duplicity  of  the  court  of  Rome,  during 
that  long  conflict,  had  confirmed  the  worst  tendencies  of 
his  character.  Intoxicated  by  absolute  power — with  a 
court,  a  parliament,  and  a  clergy  the  servile  creatures  of 
his  will — he  now  fancied  himself  a  very  God  on  earth  ; 
and  there  were  enough  who  stood  ready  to  use  his  insane 
pride  for  their  own  vile  purposes. 

It  is  unnecessary  to  repeat  here  the  familiar  story  of  Anne 
Boleyn's  sudden  and  tragic  fate.  Henry's  part  in  it  will 
forever  stamp  him,  as  one  of  the  most  cruel  and  selfish 
monsters  the  world  has  seen.  But  there  is  ample  evidence 
that  she  fell,  less  as  a  sacrifice  to  his  passions  than  to  the 
demands  of  a  bloodier  Moloch,  the  church  of  Rome.  Tried 
by  a  packed  court,  in  secret,  with  most  indecent  haste ; 
denied  the  aid  of  counsel ;  the  general  impression  then 
made  on  the  public  mind  has  been  confirmed  by  the  verdict 
of  posterity,  that  she  died  the  victim  of  a  foul  plot,  guilt- 
less of  the  crimes  with  which  she  was  charged.  But  of  this 
we  have  evidences  of  a  more  direct  character.  There 
were  weighty  grounds,  aside  from  his  personal  fancy  at  the 
moment,  by  which  the  enemies  of  Anne  could  work  on  the 


284  THE    ENGLISH    BIBLE. 

King's  mind.  The  foi'eign  and  domestic  difficulties  in 
which  he  had  become  involved  by  his  marriage,  and  his 
disappointment  of  a  male  heir,  which  left  the  succession 
still  a  matter  of  uncertainty,  furnished  a  substantial  basis 
for  their  intrigues.  "  The  Duke  of  Norfolli*  at  court,  and 
Gardiner  beyond  the  sea,  thought,"  says  Burnet,  "  there 
might  easily  be  found  a  mean  to  accommodate  the  King, 
both  with  the  Emperor  and  the  Pope,  if  the  Queen  were 
once  out  of  the  way  ;  for  then  he  might  freely  marry  any 
one  whom  he  pleased,  and  that  marriage,  with  the  male 
issue  of  it,  could  not  be  disputed  ;  whereas,  as  long  as  the 
Queen  lived,  her  marriage,  being  judged  null  from  the  be- 
ginning, could  never  be  allowed  by  the  court  of  Rome." 
There  are,  moreover,  letters  still  extant,!  disclosing  a  se- 
cret correspondence  with  that  court  on  the  subject,  months 
before  Anne  suspected  any  danger.  In  the  January  pre- 
ceding, Sir  Gregory  Cassali,  an  agent  of  Henry  VIII., 
was  conferring  with  the  Pontiff  in  relation  to  the  King's 
marriage,  and  reporting  the  same  to  Henry  in  February. 
On  the  27th  of  May,  he  writes : 

"  Ten  days  have  elapsed  since  I  went  to  the  Pope,  and  narrated  to  him 
the  tidings  that  the  Queen  had  been  thrown  into  prison.  He  then  said,  that 
he  had  been  imploring  Heaven  to  enlighten  your  mind  on  this  affair  ;  that 
he  had  always  had  something  of  this  sort  in  his  eye,  because  he  thought  the 
mind  of  your  Majesty  was  adorned  with  so  many  virtues.  .  .  .  That  your 
Majesty  might  now  perform  an  excellent  work  for  Christendom,  being  now 
released  from  a  marriage  that  was  indeed  too  unequal  for  you  J  .  .  It  was  most 
manifest,  that  if  your  Majesty  had  the  Roman  Pontiff  with  you,  you  might 
command  the  other  princes  (i.  e.  the  Emperor  and  Francis,)  that  he  prom- 

*  Norfolk  was  Anne's  own  uncle  ;  but  a  violent  papist,  and  her  bitter 
personal  enemy. 

■f  In  the  Cottonian  Library,  quoted  by  Anderson,  vol.  i.  p.  480. 

t  Yet  the  news  of  her  condeumation  and  execution,  just  a  week  previous, 
could  not  possiljly  have  reached  Rome  at  the  date  of  this  letter. 


ANNE  BOLEYN  :  THE  ROYAL  PATRONESS.      285 

ised  to  obey  you  in  this  business — desired  only  peace — was  not  disposed  to 
faction,  nor  covetously  to  increase  his  fortune  by  immense  sums ;  that  your 
Majesty  ought  not  to  be  in  an  angry  mind  towards  him,  but  to  be  friendly." 

So  honey-mouthed  could  the  Pontiff  now  be — in  pros- 
pect of  the  fall  of  Anne — who  three  months  before  had 
issued  a  bull  of  excommunication  against  Henry,  as  a  con- 
tumacious rebel  against  the  church !  Could  these  oily 
words  but  have  persuaded  Henry  to  return  as  a  dutiful  son 
into  the  bosom  of  Holy  Mother  !  England  had  been  the 
choicest  jewel  in  the  triple  crown.  The  prize  was  worth 
one  more  earnest  trial.  The  conspiracy  against  the  help- 
less woman  met  with  triumphant  success ;  but  the  very  day 
after  her  death,  a  woman  succeeded  to  her  place,  who, 
though  her  inferior  in  all  noble  traits,  was  no  less  favorably 
inclined  to  the  obnoxious  sentiments  ;  and  thus  it  was  ut- 
terly foiled  as  to  its  chief  end. 

The  character  of  Anne  Boleyn  has  been  variously  esti- 
mated, according  to  the  point  of  view  of  those  who  judged 
her.  A  living  female  writer  of  distinction  condemns  her, 
with  a  severity  strongly  in  contrast  with  the  tender  sympa- 
thy of  her  apologies  for  the  crimes  of  Mary.  It  is  not  de- 
nied that  her  relation  to  the  worthy  Katherine,  taken  by 
itself,  presents  her  in  a  light  far  from  favorable.  But  we 
must  remember,  that  it  was  no  trifling  affair  to  reject  the 
hand  of  a  willful  and  imperious  monarch  like  Henry,  who 
held  not  only  her  own  life,  but  the  lives  and  fortunes  of 
her  family  wholly  at  his  disposal,  and  who  valued  heads  as 
little  as  foot-balls,  when  they  stood  in  the  way  of  his 
wishes.*     Nor  must  we  forget,  that  the  general  voice  of 

*  So  testipes  Sir  Thomas  More,  when  at  the  height  of  royal  faror,  and 
just  after  an  extraordinary  mark  of  the  King's  regard.  "  I  thank  God, 
son  Eoper,"  said  the  Lord  Chancellor  in  reply  to  his  congratulations,  "  I 
thank  God  that  I  find  his  Majesty  indeed  my  very  good  lord.     I  believe, 


286  THE   ENGLISH   BIBLE. 

the  time,  both  in  and  out  of  the  church  of  Rome,  declared 
for  the  lawfulness  of  her  marriage.  She  herself  seems 
never  to  have  doubted  of  it.  Even  in  immediate  view  of 
death,  when  touched  with  passionate  remorse  for  her  lack 
of  tenderness  towards  the  forlorn  Mary,  she  had  no  con- 
fession to  make  of  injuries  to  Katherine. 

But  even  if  in  this  she  erred,  with  so  many  of  the  wisest 
of  her  time,  it  may  justly  be  claimed,  that  in  every  other 
respect  she  was  as  noble  a  woman  as  ever  wore  the  English 
crown.  Even  in  the  gaiety  of  youth,  and  at  the  height  of 
her  triumph  as  the  reigning  queen  of  beauty  and  grace,  the 
incense  of  court  flattery  could  not  meet  the  wants  of  her 
mind  and  heart.  Even  then,  she  studied  the  Holy  Scrip- 
tures, and  the  works  of  the  Reformers,  at  every  risk  ;  and 
through  her  example  and  influence,  a  taste  for  the  same 
earnest  pursuits  was  communicated  to  some  of  the  inmates 
of  the  palace.  Her  character  improved  and  deepened 
under  her  responsibilities  as  Queen.  In  charity,  she  was 
both  wise  and  bountiful.  "  Her  ordinary,"  says  one  of 
her  oldest  biographers,  "  amounted  to  fifteen  hundred 
pounds  at  the  least,  yearly,  (about  £20,000  of  our  time,) 
to  be  bestowed  on  the  poor ;  her  provision  of  stock  for 
them,  in  sundry  needy  parishes,  was  very  great.  Out  of 
her  privy  purse,  went  not  a  little  for  like  purposes,  to 
scholars  in  exhibition,  very  much ;  so  as  in  three  quarters 
of  a  year,  her  alms  and  bounty  were  summed  to  fourteen 
or  fifteen  thousands."     Strype  says  :*  "  It  was  well  known 

that  at  present  he  is  as  gracious  to  me  as  to  any  one  of  his  subjects  what- 
ever.   But  let  me  tell  you,  son,  that  I  have  no  cause  to  be  proud  thereof ; 
for  if  my  head  could  gain  him  a  castle  in  France,  it  would  be  off  without 
ceremony." 
*  Life  of  Archbishop  Parker,  p.  8. 


ANNE  BOLEYN  :  THE  ROYAL  PATRONESS.      287 

how  extraordinary  munificent  she  was  towards  poor 
scholars,  that  were  studious  and  virtuous  ;  and  how  liberal 
in  her  exhibition  towards  them.  She  only  required  some 
good  character  from  Dr.  Skip,  or  Parker,  or  some  otlier 
of  her  chaplains,  of  any  scholar  that  expected  or  sued  for 
her  bounty."  Her  short  reign — less  than  three  years — 
was  an  epoch  in  the  history  of  England's  evangelization  ; 
and  the  slanders  of  her  enemies  should  not  rob  her  of  her 
place  among  the  honored  martyrs  to  the  truth.  She  died, 
not  for  her  faults,  but  for  her  advocacy  of  pure  religion, 
of  the  translation  of  the  Scriptures  into  the  common 
tongue,  and  their  free  diffusion  among  the  people. 


CHAPTER   XL 


MARTYRDOM  OF  TYNDALE. 

From  the  first  appearance  of  Tyndale's  work  on  the 
king's  divorce,  the  measures  already  long  on  foot  for  his 
destruction  were  pursued  with  fresh  energy.  Sir  John 
Hackett,  as  we  have  seen,  had  failed  in  the  attempt  to 
procure  his  apprehension  by  direct  aid  from  the  Court  of 
Brussels.  The  new  scheme  was,  to  decoy  him  into  Eng- 
land by  the  promise  of  a  safe-conduct  from  the  king.  Sir 
Thomas  More  was  then  at  the  height  of  power ;  and  we 
have  already  seen  his  opinion  of  the  use  to  be  made  of 
a  safe-conduct  in  the  case  of  heretics.  Nor  were  the  other 
high  officers  of  state  ashamed  to  lend  their  services  to  the 
nefarious  plot ;  and  royal  envoys  were  charged,  in  con- 
nexion with  the  management  of  international  policy,  to  be 
on  the  watch  for  William  Tyndale.  Thomas  Cruinwell 
was  chief  director  in  the  business,  and  Stephen  Vaughan, 
one  of  his  proteges,  now  Envoy  and  King's  merchant  in 
place  of  Hackett,  his  principal  agent.  The  importance 
attached  to  this  part  of  Vaugban's  mission  may  be  judged 
of  by  the  following  letter  on  the  subject,  addressed  by  him 
to  the  King,  Jan.  26,  1530. 


MARTYRDOM  OF  TYNDALB.  289 

"  Most  excellent  Prince,  and  my  most  retloubted  Sovereign,  mine  humblo 
observation  due  unto  your  Majesty — My  mind  continually  laboring  and 
thirsting,  most  dread  and  redoubtable  .Sovereign,  with  exceeding  desire  to 
attain  the  knowledge  of  such  things  as  your  Majesty  commanded  me  to  learn 
and  practice  in  these  parts  and  thereof  advertise  you,  from  time  to  time,  as 
the  case  should  require.  And  being  often  dismayed  with  the  regard  of  so 
many  mischances,  as  always  obviate  and  meet  with  my  labors  and  policies, 
whereby  the  same  (after  great  hope  had,  to  do  something  acceptable  unto 
your  Highness'  pleasure)  turn  suddenly  to  become  frustrate,  and  of  none  ef- 
fect, bringing  me,  doubtless,  into  right  great  sorrow  and  inquietude,  consider- 
iug  that.  Wherefore,  lately,  I  have  written  three  sundry  letters  unto  Willyani 
Tyndall,  and  the  same  sent,  for  the  more  surety,  to  three  sundry  places — to 
Frankfort,  Hamburg,  and  Marleborough  (i.  e.  Marburgh ;)  I  then  not  being 
assured  in  which  of  the  same  he  was.  I  had  very  good  hope,  after  I  heard 
say  in  England,  that  he  would,  upon  the  promise  of  you  Majesty,  and  of 
your  most  gracious  safe-conduct,  be  content  to  repair  and  come  into  Eng- 
land, that  I  should,  partly  therewith,  and  partly  with  such  other  persua- 
sions as  I  then  devised  in  my  said  letters,  and,  finally,  with  a  promise  which 
I  made  him — that  whatsoever  surety  he  would  reasonably  desire,  for  his 
safe  coming  in  and  going  out  of  your  realm,  my  friends  should  labor  to  have 
the  same  granted  by  your  Majesty- -(but)  that  now,  the  bruit  and  fame  of 
such  things  (as  since  my  writing  to  him)  hath  chanced  within  your  realm, 
should  provoke  the  man,  not  only  to  be  minded  to  the  contrary  of  that  where- 
unto  I  thought,  without  clilBculty,  to  have  easily  brought  him,  but  also  to 
suspect  my  persuasions  to  be  made  to  his  more  peril  and  danger ;  than,  as 
I  think,  if  he  were  verily  persuaded  and  placed  before  you,  (your  most  gra- 
cious benignity,  and  piteous  regard  natural,  and  custom  always  had,  towards 
your  humble  subjects  considered,  and  specially  to  those,  which,  (ac)knowl- 
edging  their  offences,  shall  humbly  require  your  most  gracious  pardon,)  he 
should  ever  have  need  to  doubt  or  fear.  Like  as  your  Majesty  as  well  by 
his  letter,  written  with  his  own  hand,  sent  to  me  for  answer  of  my  said  let- 
ters ;  as  also  by  the  copy  of  another  letter  of  his,  answering  some  other  per- 
son, whom  your  Majesty  perhaps  had  commanded  to  persuade  by  like  means 
may  plain  apperceive — which  letters,  like  as  together  I  received  from  the 
party,  so  send  I,  herewith  inclosed  to  your  Highness. 

"  And  whereas  I  lately  apperceived,  by  certain  letters  directed  to  mo 
from  Mr.  Fitzwilliam,  Treasurer  of  your  household,  that  I  should  endeavor 
myself,  by  all  the  ways  and  means  I  could  study  and  devise,  to  obtain  you 
a  copy  of  the  book,  which  I  wrote  was  finished,  by  Tyndall,  answering  to  a 
book  put  forth  in  the  English  tongue  by  my  LoinJ  Chancellor,  and  the  same 

l"3 


290  THE    ENGLISH    BIBLE. 

should  send  to  your  Majesty,  with  all  celerity — I  have  undoubtedly  so  done 
and  did,  before  the  receijit  thereof.  Howbeit,  I  neither  can  get  any  of 
them,  nor,  as  yet,  (is  it)  come  to  my  knowledge  that  any  of  them  should  bo 
put  forth  ;  but  being  put  forth,  I  shall  then  not  fail,  with  all  celerity,  to 
send  one  unto  your  Highness." 

In  a  note  to  Crumwell,  to  whom  tliis  letter  was  con- 
signed, lie  adds :  "  It  is  unlikely  to  get  Tyndale  into 
England,  wlien  lie  daily  heareth  so  many  things  from 
thence  which  feareth  him.  .  .  .  The  man  is  of  greater 
knowledge  than  the  King's  highness  doth  take  him  for, 
which  well  appeareth  by  his  works.  Would  God  he  were 
in  England !" 

On  the  17th  of  April,  he  had,  most  unexpectedly,  an 
interview  with  Tyndale;  of  which,  the  very  next  day,  he 
transmitted  the  following  account  in  a  letter  to  the  King  : 

"The  day  before  the  date  hereof,  (17th  of  April,)  I  spake  with  Tyndale 
without  the  town  of  Antwerp  ;  and  by  this  means.  He  sent  a  certain  per- 
son to  seek  me,  whom  he  had  advised  to  say,  that  a  certain  friend  of  mine, 
unknoAvn  to  the  messenger,  was  very  desirous  to  speak  with  me  ;  praying 
me  to  take  pains  to  go  unto  him,  to  such  place  as  he  should  bring  me.  Then  I 
(said)  to  the  messenger, — '  What  is  your  friend,  and  where  is  he  V  '  His 
name  I  know  not,'  said  he,  '  but  if  it  be  your  pleasure  to  go  where  he  is,  I 
will  be  glad  thither  to  bring  you.'  Thus  doubtful  what  this  matter  meant, 
I  concluded  to  go  with  him,  and  followed  him,  till  he  brought  me  without  the 
gates  of  Antwerp,  into  a  field  lying  nigh  unto  the  same,  where  was  abiding 
me  this  said  Tyndale. 

"At  our  meeting — 'Do  you  not  know  me?'  said  this  Tyndale.  'I  do 
not  well  remember  you,'  said  I  to  him.  '  My  name,'  said  he,  '  is  Tyndale.' 
•  But,  Tyndale,'  said  I,  '  fortunate  be  our  meeting !'  Then  Tyndale — 
'  Sir,  I  have  been  exceedingly  desirous  to  speak  with  you.'  '  And  I  with 
you;  what  is  your  mind  7'  '  Sir,' said  he,  '  I  am  informed  that  the  King's 
Grace  taketh  great  displeasure  with  me,  for  putting  forth  of  certain  books, 
which  I  lately  made  in  these  parts  ;  but  specially  for  the  book  named  ''The 
Fractice  of  Prelates,"  whereof  I  have  no  little  marvel, — considering  that  in 
it  I  did  but  warn  his  Grace,  of  the  subtle  demeanor  of  the  Clergy  of  his  realm, 
towards  his  person;  and  of  the  shameful  abusious  by  them  practised,  not  a 
little  threatenmg  the  displeasure  of  his  Grace,  and  weal  of  his  realm :  in 


MAR-TYE-DOM    OF    TYNDALE.  291 

which  doing,  I  showed  and  declared  the  heart  of  a  true  subject,  which 
Bought  the  safe-guard  of  his  royal  person,  and  weal  of  his  Commons :  to  the 
intent,  that  his  Grace  thereof  warned,  might,  in  due  time,  prepare  his  remedies 
against  their  subtle  dreams.  If,  for  my  pains  therein  talcen, — if  for  my  po 
verty, — if  for  mine  exile  out  of  mine  natural  country,  and  bitter  absence  from 
my  friends, — if  for  my  hunger,  my  thirst,  my  cold,  the  great  danger  where- 
with 1  am  eVery  where  compassed  ;  and  finally,  if  for  innumerable  other 
hard  and  sharp  lightings  which  I  endure,  not  yet  feeling  of  their  asperity, 
by  reason  (that)  I  hoped  with  my  labors,  to  do  honour  to  God,  true  service 
to  my  Prince,  and  pleasure  to  his  Commons  ; — how  is  it  that  his  Grace,  this 
considering,  may  either  by  himself  think,  or  by  the  persuasions  of  others, 
be  thought  to  think,  that  in  this  doing,  I  should  not  show  a  pure  mind,  a 
true  and  incorrupt  zeal,  and  affection  to  his  Grace  1  Was  there  in  me  any 
such  mind,  when  I  warned  his  Grace  to  beware  of  his  Cardinal,  whose  ini- 
quity he  shortly  after  proved,  according  to  my  writing  1  Doth  this  deserve 
hatred  1 

"  Again,  may  his  Grace,  being  a  Christian  prince,  be  so  unkind  to  God, 
which  hath  commanded  his  Word  to  be  spread  throughout  the  world,  to  give 
more  faith  to  wicked  persuasions  of  men,  which  presuming  above  God's 
wisdom,  and  contrary  to  that  which  Christ  expressly  commandeth  in  his 
Testament,  dare  say,  that  it  is  not  lawful  for  the  people  to  have  the  same, 
in  a  tongue  that  they  understand  ;  because  the  purity  thereof  should  open 
men's  eyes  to  see  their  wickedness  1  Is  there  more  danger  in  the  King's 
subjects,  than  in  the  subjects  of  all  other  Princes,  which,  in  every  of  their 
tongues  have  the  same,  under  privilege  of  their  suSerance  ?  As  I  now  am, 
very  death  were  more  pleasant  to  me  than  life,  considering  man's  nature  to 
be  such  as  can  bear  no  truth.' 

"  Thus,  after  a  long  communication  had  between  us,  for  my  part,  making 
answer  as  my  poor  wit  would  serve  me,  which  was  too  long  to  write  ;  I  as- 
sayed him  with  gentle  persuasions,  to  know  whether  he  would  come  into 
England  ;  ascertaining  him  that  means  should  be  made,  if  he  (only)  thereto 
were  minded  without  his  peril  or  danger,  that  he  might  do  so  :  And  that 
what  surety  he  would  devise'  for  the  same  purpose,  should,  by  labour 
of  friends,  be  obtained  of  your  Majesty.  But  to  this  he  answered — that  ho 
neither  would,  nor  durst,  come  into  England,  albeit  your  Grace  would  prom- 
ise him  never  so  much  surety  ;  fearing  lest,  as  he  hath  before  written,  your 
promise  made,  should  shortly  be  broken  by  the  persuasion  of  the  clergy  ; 
which  would  affirm,  that  promise  made  with  heretics  ought  not  to  be  kept. 

"  After  this  he  told  me  how  he  had  finished  a  work  against  my  Lord 
Chancellor's  book,  and  would  not  put  it  in  print  till  such  time  as  your  Grace 


292  THE    ENGLISH    BIBLE. 

had  seen  it ;  because  he  perceireth  your  displeasure  towards  him,  for  hasty 
putting  forth  of  his  other  works,  and  because  it  should  appear  that  he  is  not 
of  so  obstinate  mind,  as  he  thinks  he  is  reported  xmto  your  Grace.  This  is 
the  substance  of  his  communications  had  with  me,  which,  as  he  spake,  I  have 
written  to  your  Grace  word  for  word,  as  near  as  I  could  by  any  possible 
means  bring  to  remembrance.  My  trust,  therefore,  is  that  your  Grace  will 
not  but  take  my  labours  in  the  best  part.  I  thought  necessary  to  be  writ- 
ten to  your  Grace. 

"After  these  words,  he  then,  being  something  fearful  of  me  lest  I  would 
have  pursued  him,  and  drawing  also  towards  night,  he  took  his  leave  of  me, 
and  departed  from  the  town,  and  I  towards  the  town — saying,  '  I  should 
shortly,  peradventure,  see  him  again,  or  if  not,  hear  from  him.'  Howbeit,  I 
suppose  he  afterwards  returned  to  the  town  by  another  way,  for  there  is  no 
likelihood  that  he  should  lodge  without  the  town.  Hasty  to  pursue  him  I 
■was  not,  because  I  had  some  likelihood  to  speak  shortly  again  with  him ; 
and  in  pursuing  him,  I  might  perchance  have  failed  of  my  purpose,  and 
put  myself  in  danger.'' 

Vaughan,  •witli  all  his  courtier-like  subserviency,  was 
evidently  quite  too  good  a  man.  for  so  base  an  errand.  But 
this  cautious  attempt  to  soften  the  King's  feelings  was 
wholly  unavailing.  A  very  rough  and  severe  reply  from 
Crumwell,  who  was  extremely  vexed  at  the  imprudence  of 
his  subordinate,  conveyed  the  expression  of  the  high  royal 
displeasure  at  the  tone  of  the  above  letter.  Henry  was, 
apparently,  much  alarmed  lest  his  envoy,  while  attempting 
to  execute  his  wishes,  should  be  corrupted  by  this  danger- 
ous man.  He  strictly  forbade,  therefore,  any  further  ef- 
forts to  persuade  Tyndale  to  come  into  England ;  profess- 
ing that  he  was  "  very  joyous  to  have  his  realm  destitute 
of  a  person  so  malicious,  perverse,  uncharitable,  and  indu- 
rate;" who,  if  once  in  England,  "  would,  by  all  likelihood, 
shortly  (which  God  defend,)  do  as  much  as  in  him  were 
to  infect  and  corrupt  the  whole  realm,  to  the  great  inquiet- 
ation  and  hurt  of  the  commonwealth  of  the  same." 


MARTYRDOM  OF  TYNDALE.  293 

The  Secretary  then  adds  his  own  earnest  remonstrance, 
exhorting  Vaughan  by  all  his  hopes  of  court  favor  and  pro- 
motion, to  show  in  his  future  letters  to  the  king,  that  he 
bore  "  no  manner  of  love,  favor,  or  affection  to  the  said 
Tyndale,  nor  his  works,  in  any  manner  of  ways,  but  that 
he  utterly  contemned  and  abhorred  the  same." 

To  this,  however,  was  subjoined  a  postscript,  the  result, 
probably,  of  a  subsequent  communication  from  his  Majesty, 
suggesting,  that  heinous  as  were  the  offences  of  Tyndale, 
if  he  would  but  abjure  his  errors,  he  might  be  permitted 
to  return  to  England  with  some  good  hope  of  the  King's 
mercy.  On  this  hint  Vaughan  ventured  to  seek  another 
interview  with  him,  which  he  reports  as  follows : 

"  I  have  again  been  in  hand  to  persuade  Tyndale ;  and  to  draw  him  the 
rather  to  favour  my  persuasions,  and  not  to  think  tho  same  feigned,  I 
showed  him  a  clause  contained  in  Master  Crumwell's  letter,  containing  these 
words  following — '  And  notwithstanding  other  the  premises  in  this  my  letter 
contained,  if  it  were  possible,  by  good  and  wholesome  exhortation,  to  reconcilo 
and  convert  the  said  Tyndale  from  the  train  and  affection  which  he  now  is  in, 
and  to  escerpte  and  take  away  the  opinions  sorely  rooted  in  him,  I  doubt 
not  but  the  King's  Highness  would  be  much  joyous  of  his  conversion  and 
amendment ;  and  so,  being  converted,  if  then  he  would  return  into  his 
realm,  undoubtedly  the  King's  Royal  Majesty  is  so  inclined  to  mercy,  pity, 
and  compassion,  that  he  refuseth  none  which  he  seeth  submit  themselves  to 
the  obedience  and  good  order  of  the  world.'  In  these  words  I  thought  to  be 
such  sweetness  and  virtue,  as  were  able  to  pierce  the  hardest  heart  of  the 
world :  and  as  I  thought  so  it  came  to  pass.  For  after  sight  thereof,  I  per- 
ceived the  man  to  be  exceedingly  altered,  and  to  take  the  same  very  near 
unto  his  heart,  in  such  wise  that  water  stood  in  his  eyes  ;  and  he  answered, 
'  what  gracious  words  arc  these !'  'I  assure  you,'  said  he, '  if  it  would  stand 
with  the  King's  most  gracious  pleasure  to  grant  only  a  bare  text  of  the 
Scripture  to  be  put  forth  among  his  people,  like  as  is  put  forth  among  the  sub- 
jects of  the  Emperor  in  these  parts,  and  of  other  Christian  princes,— be  it  of 
the  translation  of  what  person  soever  shall  please  his  Majesty,  I  shall  imme- 
diately make  faithful  promise  never  to  write  more,  nor  abide  two  days  in 
these  parts  after  the  same ;  but  immediately  repair  into  his  realm,  and  there 


294  THE    ENGLISH    BIBLE. 

most  humbly  submit  myself  at  the  feet  of  his  Royal  Majesty,  offering  my 
body,  to  suffer  what  pain  or  torture,  yea,  what  death  his  Grace  will,  so  that 
this  be  obtained.  And  till  that  time,  I  will  abide  the  asperity  of  all 
chances,  whatsoever  shall  come,  and  endure  my  life  in  as  much  pains  8.3 
it  is  able  to  bear  and  suffer.  And  as  concerning  my  reconciliation,  hi3 
Grace  may  be  assured, — that  whatsoever  I  have  said  or  written,  in  all 
my  life,  against  the  honour  of  God's  Word,  and  (if)  so  proved ;  the  same 
shall  I,  before  his  Majesty  and  aU  the  world  utterly  renounce  and  forsake, — 
and  with  most  humble  and  meek  mind  embrace  the  truth,  abhorring  all  er- 
ror soever, — at  the  most  gracious  and  benign  request  of  his  Royal  Majesty, 
of  whose  wisdom,  prudence,  and  learning  I  hear  so  great  praise  and  com- 
mendation, than  of  any  creature  living  !  But  if  those  things  which  I  have 
written  be  true  and  stand  with  God's  Word,  why  should  his  Majesty,  having 
so  excellent  a  gift  of  knowledge  in  the  Scriptures,  move  me  to  do  anything 
against  my  conscience  V — with  many  other  words,  which  were  too  long  to 
write." 

For  nearly  a  year  nothing  more  is  heard  on  this  topic 
from  Vaughan.  But,  from  a  letter  to  Lord  Cromwell  in 
1531,  it  appears  that  what  he  had  already  done  had  effect- 
ed nothing  but  to  prejudice  his  own  interests  at  court,  and 
that  Sir  Thomas  More  was  as  busy  in  the  measures  against 
Tyndale,  as  in  the  persecutions  at  home. 

A  subsequent  letter  places  before  us  in  a  vivid  light  the 
conflict  of  opinion  then  agitating  England,  the  mean  and 
cruel  policy  employed  to  bring  it  to  an  end,  and  the  tri- 
umphant spread  of  truth  against  all  opposition.  The  noble 
sentiments  of  these  extracts  place  Stephen  Vaughan  far 
above  the  greatest  of  his  employers. 

"  If  Constantyne*  have  accused  me  to  be  of  the  Lutheran  sect,  a  fautor  and 
settor-forth  of  erroneous  and  suspected  works,  I  do  not  thereat  marvel,  for 

*  Constantino  was  accused  as  a  heretic,  and  as  engaged  in  the  transportation 
of  books,  in  152S.  That  year  he  fled  to  Brabant,  where  he  supported  himself  by 
his  profession,  having  been  bred  a  surgeon.  In  the  year  1531,  having  ventured 
into  England,  he  fell  into  the  hands  of  Sir  Thomas  More,  who  subjected  him  to  a 
harsh  imprisonment  in  his  own  mansion  ;  using  his  leisure  to  extract  from  the 
poor  man,  by  alternate  threats  and  promises,  information  against  his  brethren 
abroad  and  aU  who  were  suspected  of  favoring  them. 


MARTYRDOM  OF  TYNDALE.  295 

two  causes  specially.  One  is,  for  that  my  Lord  Chancellor,  in  his  examina- 
tion of  the  said  George  and  of  all  other  men  (as  I  am  credibly  informed,) 
being  brought  before  him  for  cases  of  heresy,  doth  deeply  inquire  to  know 
•what  may  be  said  of  me  ;  and  in  the  examination  thereof  showeth  evident 
and  clear  desire,  in  his  countenance  and  behaviour,  to  hear  something 
of  me,  whereby  an  occasion  of  evil  might  be  ftistened  against  me  ;  which, 
no  doubt,  shall  soon  be  espied  in  the  patient  whom  he  examineth, — who  per- 
ceiving his  desirein  that  behalf,  and  trusting,  by  accusing  of  me,  to  escape  and 
avoid  his  present  danger,  of  pure  frailty  and  weakness,  sparethnotto  accuse 
the  innocent.  The  other  is,  for  that  George,  besides  the  imminent  peril  and 
danger  in  which  he  was,  abiding  prisoner  in  my  Lord's  house,  was  vehe- 
mently stirred  and  provoked.  What  with  the  remembrance  of  his  poor 
wife  remaining  here,  desperate,  bewashed  with  continual  tears,  and  pinched 
with  hourly  sorrow,  sighs,  and  mourning,  and  the  sharp  and  bitter  threat- 
enings  of  his  poor  (state)  and  condition,  likely  to  be  brought  unto  an  extreme 
danger  of  poverty  ;  and  more  hard  than  the  first,  by  the  excess  of  his  misery, 
to  accuse  whom  they  had  longed  for,  rather  than  to  be  tied  by  the  leg  with 
a  cold  and  heavy  iron  like  a  beast, — as  appeared  by  the  shift  he  made  to 
undo  the  same  and  escape  such  tortures  and  punishments.  Will  not  these 
perils,  fears,  punishments,  make  a  son  forget  the  father  which  begat  him  7 
And  the  mother  that  bear  him,  and  fed  him  with  her  breasts  7  If  they  will, 
who  should  (wonder)  though  he  would  accuse  me,  a  thousand  time,s  less  dear 
to  him  than  father  or  mother,  to  rid  him  out  of  the  same  1 

"  Would  God  it  might  please  the  King's  Majesty  to  look  into  these  kinds 
of  punishments  ;  which  in  my  poor  opinion,  threateneth  more  hurt  to  his 
realm,  than  those  that  be  his  ministers  to  execute  the  same  tortures  and 
puuishments  do  think  or  conjecture  :  and  by  this  reason  only, — It  shall  (will) 
constrain  his  subjects,  in  great  number  to  forsake  his  realm,  and  to  inhabit 
strange  regions  and  countries,  where  they  will  not  practise  a  little  hurt  to 
the  same.  Yea,  and  whereas  they  (the  King's  ministers)  think  that  tor- 
tures?, punishments  and  death,  will  be  a  mean  to  rid  the  realm  of  erroneous 
opinions,  and  bring  men  in  such  fear  that  they  will  not  once  be  so  hardy  to 
speak  or  look,  be  you  assured,  and  let  the  King's  grace  be  therefore  advertised 
at  my  mouth,  that  his  highness  (shall)  will  duly  prove,  that  in  the  end  it  will 
cause  the  sect  to  wax  greater,  and  those  errors  to  be  more  plentcously 
sowed  in  his  realm  than  ever  afore.  For  who  have  so  mightily  sowed  those 
errors  as  those  persons  which,  for  fear  of  tortures  and  death,  have  fled  his 
rciilm?  Will  they  not,  by  driving  men  out  of  his  realm,  make  the  rownt 
(irruption)  and  company  greater  in  strange  countries,  and  will  not  many  do 
more  than  one  or  two  1    Will  not  four  write  where  one  wrote  afore  1    Coun- 


296  THE    ENGLISH    BIBLE. 

sel  you  the  King's  Highness,  as  his  true  subject,  to  look  upon  this  matter, 
and  no  more  to  trust  to  other  men's  policies,  which  threateneth,  in  mine 
opinion,  the  weal  of  his  realm  ;  and  let  me  no  longer  be  blamed  nor  suspect 
ed  for  my  true  saying. 

"  That  I  write  I  know  to  be  true  ;  and  daily  do  see  experience  of  that  1 
now  write,  which,  between  you  and  me,  I  have  often  said  and  written, 
though  peradventure  you  have  little  regarded  it.  But  tarry  a  while  and 
you  will  be  learned  by  experience.    I  see  it  begun  already. 

"  To  some  men  it  will  seem,  by  this  my  manner  of  writing,  that  I  being 
(as  they  suppose,  and  as  I  have  been  falsely  accused  to  be)  one  of  the  sect, 
do  write  in  this  manner  because  I  would  that  both  I  and  the  same  sect 
should  be  suffered  without  punishment.  Nay  truly — But  rather  I  would 
that  an  evil  doer  should  be  charitably  punished,  and  in  such  manner  as  ho 
might  thereby  be  won  with  other,  than  lost  with  a  great  many.  And  let 
his  Majesty  be  further  assured,  that  he  will,  with  no  policy,  nor  with  no 
threat enings  of  tortures  and  punishments  take  away  the  opinions  of  his  peo- 
ple, till  his  Grace  shall  fatherly  and  lovingly  reform  the  clergy  of  his  realm. 
For  there  springeth  the  opinion.  From  thence  riseth  the  grudge  of  his 
people.  Out  of  that  men  take  and  find  occasions  to  complain.  If  I  say 
truth  let  it  be  for  such  received.  If  otherwise,  I  protest,  before  God  and  the 
World,  that  whatsoever  I  here  write,  I  mean  therein  nothing  but  honour,  glory 
and  surety  of  my  only  Prince  and  sovereign,  and  the  j)ublic  weal  of  his  realm." 

The  nest  year  discovers  a  new  bailiff  in  pursuit  of  Tyn- 
dalc,  Sir  Thomas  Elyot,  Ambassador  from  Henry  to  the 
Emperor.  The  rancorous  hatred  of  the  King,  and  the 
straits  to  which  the  reformer  was  reduced  by  his  persecu- 
tion, appear  from  the  following  reference  to  it  in  a  letter 
addressed,  March  14th,  1532,  to  the  Duke  of  Norfolk, 
then  Prime  Minister  of  England : 

"  My  duty  remembered,  with  most  humble  thanks  unto  your  Grace,  that 
it  pleased  you  so  benevolently  to  remember  me  unto  the  King's  Highness, 
concerning  my  return  into  England.  Albeit  the  King  willeth  me,  by  his 
Grace's  letters,  to  remain  at  Brussels,  soJne  space  of  time  for  the  appre- 
hension of  Tyndale,  which  somewhat  minisheth  my  hope  of  soon  return ; 
considering  that  like  as  he  is  in  wit  moveable,  semblably  so  is  his  pereon 
■uncertain  to  come  by.  And,  as  far  as  I  can  perceive,  hearing  of  the 
King's  diligence  in  the  apprehension  of  him,  he  withdraweth  him  into 


MARTYRDOM  OF  TYNDALE.  297 

such  places  where  he  thinketh  to  be  farthest  out  of  danger.  In  me  there 
shall  lack  none  endeavour.  Finally,  as  I  am  all  the  King's,  except  my  soul, 
so  shall  I  endure  all  that  shall  be  his  pleasure,  employing  my  poor  life  gladly 
in  that  which  may  be  to  his  honour  or  wealth  of  his  realm." 

But  this  attempt  was  as  unsuccessful  as  the  former.  The 
persecuted  exile  was  not  without  friends  to  warn  him  of 
approaching  danger,  and  to  afford  him  secure  refuge  in  the 
hour  of  need.  By  many  members  of  that  honorable  and 
powerful  body,  the  Company  of  English  Merchant  Adven- 
turers, he  was  venerated  as  an  apostle.  As  we  have  seen 
in  the  case  of  Vaughan,  it  was  impossible  for  a  man  of  any 
generosity  of  soul  to  come,  even  briefly,  into  contact  with 
Tyndale,  without  a  deep  impression  of  his  exalted  moral 
worth;  and  we  need  not  wonder  that  with  those  who 
had  enjoyed  the  privilege  of  daily  intercouse  with  him  for 
years,  this  feeling  should  rise  into  an  affectionate  enthusi- 
asm, which  would  risk  every  thing  to  save  him.  A  beauti- 
ful picture  it  is,  which  Foxe  gives  of  his  course  of  life  in 
Antwerp,  and  of  his  relations  to  his  noble  countrymen  : 

"  First,  he  was  a  man  very  frugal,  and  spare  of  body,  a  great  student  and 
earnest  labourer  in  the  setting  forth  of  the  Scriptures  of  God.  He  reserved 
or  hallowed  to  himself  two  days  in  the  week,  which  he  named  his  pastime, 
Monday  and  Saturday.  On  Monday  he  visited  all  such  poor  men  and 
women  as  were  fled  out  of  England,  by  reason  of  persecution,  into  Ant- 
werp, and  these,  once  well  understanding  their  good  exercises  and  quali- 
ties, he  did  very  liberally  comfort  and  relieve  ;  and  in  like  manner  provided 
for  the  sick  and  diseased  persons.  On  the  Saturday  he  walked  round  about  the 
town,  seeking  every  corner  and  hole  where  he  suspected  any  poor  person  to 
dwell,  and  where  he  found  any  to  be  well  occupied  and  yet  over-burdened  with 
children,  or  else  were  aged  and  weak,  those  also  he  plentifully  relieved. 
And  thus  he  spent  his  two  days  of  pastime,  as  he  called  them.  And  truly 
his  alms  were  very  large,  and  so  they  might  well  be ;  for  his  exhibition 
that  he  had  yearly  of  the  English  merchants  at  Antwerp,  when  living  thero 
■was  considerable,  and  that  for  the  most  part  he  bestowed  upon  the  poor. 
The  rest  of  the  days  of  the  week  he  prave  wholly  to  hi3  book,  wherein  ha 

13* 


'298  THE    ENGLISH   BIBLE. 

most  diligently  travailed.  When  the  Sunday  came,  then  went  he  to  some 
one  merchant's  chamber  or  other,  whither  came  many  other  merchants,  and 
unto  them  would  he  read  some  one  parcel  of  Scripture  ;  the  which  proceeded 
so  fruitfully,  sweetly,  and  gently  from  him,  much  like  to  the  writing  of  John 
the  Evangelist,  that  it  was  a  heavenly  comfort  and  joy  to  the  audience,  to 
hear  him  read  the  Scriptures  :  likewise,  after  dinner,  he  spent  an  hour  in  the 
same  manner.  He  was  a  man  without  any  spot  or  blemish  of  rancour  or 
malice,  full  of  mercy  and  compassion,  so  that  no  man  living  was  able  to  re- 
prove him  of  any  sin  or  crime  ;  although  his  righteousness  and  justification 
depended  not  thereupon  before  God ;  but  only  upon  the  blood  of  Christ  and 
his  faith  upon  the  same." 

But  towards  the  close  of  1534,  or  the  beginning  of  the 
following  year,  a  new  plot  was  devised  against  bis  life, 
which  ultimately  proved  successful.  It  is  a  noticeable  fact 
that  in  the  two  previous  attempts,  when  Sir  Thomas  More 
■was  all  powerful  in  the  royal  counsels,  the  King  appears 
as  chief  mover ;  whereas,  his  name  is  not  mentioned  in 
connexion  with  the  present  one.  He  may  not,  indeed, 
have  reliufj^uished  his  own  eiforts  for  the  same  object ;  but 
this  seems  to  have  been  an  independent  plan,  contrived  by 
the  leaders  of  the  popish  party  against  their  most  dreaded 
opponent.  Probably  they  were  deterred  from  seeking 
Henry's  aid  by  a  fear  of  the  influence  of  Anne  Boleyn. 
Whatever  the  cause,  the  fact  is  certain  that  they  attempted 
to  effect  their  object,  not  through  him,  but  through  his 
mortal  enemy  the  Emperor,  who,  as  the  relative  and  pro- 
tector of  Katherine,  was  also  the  patron  of  the  disaffected 
Jllnglish  clergy. 

The  emissaries  now  despatched  on  this  business  were 
better  chosen  than  those  formerly  employed  by  the  King ; 
being  merely  hired  villains,  with  no  character  to  lose,  and 
no  political  duties  to  divert  them  from  their  errand.  There 
were  two  of  them;  the  one  a  young  man  of  prepossessing 
exterior,  but  a  needy  and  profligate  adventurer,  named 


MARTYRDOM  OF  TYNDALE.  299 

Henry  Phillips.  He  was  to  play  the  part  of  gentleman. 
The  other  Gabriel  Donne,  a  monk  of  Stratford  Abbey,  was 
to  pass  as  his  servant,  but  was,  no  doubt,  the  real  director 
of  the  enterprise.  They  were  plentifully  supplied  by  their 
employers  with  money  wherewith  to  keep  up  appearances, 
and  to  apply  bribery  wherever  needful.  Donne  first  went 
to  Louvain,  probably  to  consult  with  that  enlightened  Fac- 
ulty of  Theology,  which  had  once  been  so  shocked  at  the 
impiety  of  Erasmus,  and  had  driven  Dorpius  from  the  pro- 
fessor's chair.  Here  he  was  joined  by  Phillips,  and  both 
proceeded  to  Antwerp. 

Tyndale  was  at  that  time  residing  with  an  English  mer- 
chant of  that  city,  by  the  name  of  Pointz  ;  a  gentleman 
of  ancient  Norman  family,  and  of  high  connexions  in  his 
native  land ;  but  far  more  honorably  distinguished  as  the 
lover  of  the  Scriptures,  and  the  friend  of  Tyndale.  As 
Tyndale's  company  was  in  great  request  with  the  other 
English  merchants,  and  he  was  often  invited  to  their  tables, 
where  also  Henry  Phillips,  as  a  rich  fellow-countryman, 
found  easy  access,  the  conspirator  and  his  victim  soon  met. 
The  engaging  manners  and  professed  friendship  of  the 
young  man  soon  won  the  confidence  of  the  unsuspecting 
lleformer.  Not  only  did  he  invite  him  repeatedly  to  the 
mansion  of  his  host,  but  even  induced  Mr.  Pointz  to  re- 
ceive him  as  a  lodger.  The  intimate  daily  intercourse 
thus  established  was  diligently  used  by  the  base  man,  to 
become  acquainted  with  everything  in  Tyndale's  life  and 
writings,  which  could  subserve  the  purpose  of  his  em- 
ployers. 

Having  gained  all  necessary  information,  Phillips  now  be- 
gan cautiously  to  take  steps  for  bringing  the  matter  to  an  end. 
It  was  his  design  at  first,  as  is  supposed,  to  efiect  the  object 


300  THE    ENGLISH    BH3LE. 

through  the  Antwerp  city  government.  In  this  view  he 
sounded  Mr.  Pointz,  as  he  probably  did  others  of  his  coun- 
trymen, to  ascertain  if  he  could  be  bribed  into  concurrence 
with  such  a  measure.  Such  was  the  interpretation  after- 
wards given  to  mysterious  hints  from  Phillips,  which  at 
the  time  awakened  no  suspicion.  Por  the  idea,  that  any 
one  could  dream  of  bribing  Thomas  Pointz  to  betray  his 
friend,  never  entered  the  thoughts  of  the  noble  merchant 
till  events  brought  their  own  explanation. 

Failing  in  this  plan,  he  made  no  application  to  the  Ant- 
werp magistracy,  but  proceeded  to  the  court  of  Brussels, 
about  thirty  miles  distant.  As  King  Henry,  on  account 
of  his  quarrel  with  the  Emperor,  had  no  ambassador  at 
Brussels,  Phillips  had  free  scope ;  and  by  connecting  his 
designs  against  Tyndale  with  treasonable  propositions 
against  his  own  sovereign,  he  succeeded  in  obtaining  a 
favorable  hearing.  On  his  return  to  Antwerp,  the  Em- 
peror's attorney  accompanied  him,  for  the  purpose  of  ap- 
prehending Tyndale.  Yet  even  the  imperial  officials  dared 
not  seize  an  Englishman  openly  in  this  free  city,  where 
English  influence  was  so  powerful,  and  several  days  passed 
by  without  action.  But  at  length,  Pointz  left  home  to  be 
absent  a  month  or  six  weeks  at  the  great  annual  fair  at 
Barrow,  and  the  favorable  moment  was  now  judged  to  have 
come.  The  remainder  of  the  story  is  best  told  in  the 
words  of  Foxe. 

"  In  the  time  of  his  absence  Henry  Phillips  came  again  to  Antwerp,  to 
the  house  of  Poyntz,  and  coming  in,  spake  with  his  wife,  asking  her  for 
Master  Tyndale,  and  whether  he  would  dine  there  with  him ;  saying — 
'what  good  meat  shall  we  have?'  She  answered,  'such  as  the  market 
will  give.'  Then  went  he  forth  again,  as  it  was  thought,  to  provide,  and  set 
the  officers  whom  he  brought  with  him  from  Brussels,  in  the  street,  and 
about  the  door.     Then  about  noon  he  came  again,  and  went  to  Master  Tyn- 


MARTYRDOM  OF  TYNDALE.  301 

dale,  and  desired  him  to  lend  him  forty  shillings ;  '  for,'  said  he,  '  I  lost  my 
purse  this  morning,  coming  over  at  the  passage,  between  this  and  Meclilin.' 
So  Tyndale  took  him  forty  shillings,  which  was  easy  to  be  had  of  him,  if  he 
had  it ;  for  in  the  wily  subtilities  of  this  world,  he  was  simple  and  inexpert. 

"  Then  said  Phillips,  '  Master  Tyndale,  you  shall  be  my  guest  here  this 
day.'  No,  said  Tyndale,  '  I  go  forth  this  day  to  dinner,  and  you  shall  go 
with  me,  and  be  my  guest,  where  you  shall  be  welcome.'  So  when  it  was 
dinner  time.  Master  Tyndale  went  forth  with  Phillips,  and  at  the  going 
forth  of  Poyntz's  house  was  a  long  narrow  entry,  so  that  two  could  not  go 
in  a  front.  Tyndale  would  have  put  Phillips  before  him,  but  Phillips  would 
in  no  wise,  for  that  he  pretended  to  show  great  humanity,  (courtesy.)  So 
Master  Tyndale,  being  a  man  of  no  great  stature,  went  before,  and  Phillips, 
a  tall  comely  pei'son,  followed  behind  him  ;  who  had  set  officers  on  either 
side  of  the  door  on  two  seats,  who  being  there  might  see  who  came  in  the 
entry ;  and  coming  through  the  same,  Phillips  pointed  with  his  finger  over 
Master  Tyndale's  head  do^vn  to  him,  that  the  officers  who  sat  at  the  door 
might  see  that  it  was  he,  whom  they  should  take ;  as  the  officers  afterwards 
told  Poyntz  ;  and  said,  when  they  had  laid  him  in  prison,  that  they  pitied 
to  see  his  simplicity,  when  they  took  him.  Then  they  brought  him  to  the 
Emperor's  attorney  where  he  dined.  Then  came  he,  the  attorney,  to  the 
house  of  Poyntz,  and  sent  away  all  that  was  there  of  Master  Tyndale's,  as 
well  his  books  as  other  things,  and  from  thence  Tyndale  was  had  to  the 
castle  of  ViLvoRJDE,  eighteen  English  miles  from  Antwerp." 

No  sooner  was  this  infamous  transaction  known,  tlian 
Tyndale's  friends  in  Antwerp  exerted  their  utmost  in  his 
behalf.  By  their  influence,  the  House  of  Merchant  Ad- 
venturers was  induced  to  make  a  formal  application  to  the 
court  of  Brussels,  for  his  release.  But  through  the  in- 
difference or  timidity  of  their  chief  oiEcer,  to  whom  the 
business  "was  entrusted,  nothing  resulted  from  the  attempt. 
An  effort  was  also  made  to  secure  interest  for  him  at  the 
English  Court,   but  with  no   decisive  effect.*      Alarmed 

*  Thebald,  at  this  time  the  confidential  agent  of  Cranmcr  and  Crumwell 
on  the  continent,  makes  report  to  his  employers,  in  the  manner  of  one  who 
had  been  especially  directed  by  them  to  watch  the  ease. — (Anderson,  vol. 
I.,  pp.  423—25.)     To  what  can  the  change  in  Crumwell's  policy  bo  ascribed. 


302  THE    ENGLISH    BIBLE. 

for  Ills  revered  friend,  Thomas  Poiiitz  now  resolved  to  try 
■what  could  be  done  by  his  personal  energy.  He  had  a 
brother  in  England,  John  Pointz,  who  had  been  for  twen- 
ty  years  in  familiar  intercourse  with  King  Henry  and  his 
court,  and  was  now  a  member  of  the  royal  household.  To 
him  he  directed  a  letter,  in  which  he  boldly  charges  Tyn- 
dale's  imprisonment  upon  the  Papists,  as  part  of  a  deep 
laid  plot  for  the  subversion  of  his  Majesty's  government, 
and  of  the  religious  reforms  which  it  supported ;  and  he 
urges  his  brother,  either  in  his  own  person  or  through 
others,  to  bring  the  matter  directly  before  the  King.  The 
lionest  warmth  and  fearlessness  of  this  letter,  equally  free 
from  pretention  and  servility,  is  an  honorable  index  not 
only  of  the  worth  of  the  man,  but  of  the  spirit  of  the  class 
to  which  he  belonged.  England,  in  the  sixteenth  century, 
had  no  such  nobles  as  those  princely-hearted  merchants  of 
hers,  who  had  dared  to  search  the  Scriptures  for  them- 
selves; none  so  free  in  thought,  so  bold  in  wo^•d,  yet  none 
so  loyal  to  their  King  and  country. 

This  letter  seems  to  have  made  a  decided  impression. 
Before  the  close  of  the  next  mouth  a  messenger  was  dis- 
patched from  the  English  court,  less  perhaps  from  the 
wish  to  befriend  Tyndale,  though  this  was  the  ostensible 
object,  than  to  look  after  those  traitorous  Englishmen 
mentioned  by  Pointz,  as  so  busy  at  Louvain ;  one  of  whom 
was  already  known,  from  Thebald's  letters,  as  engaged  in 
treasonable  practices  against  the  King.  The  relations  of 
the  two  governments  not  allowing  of  direct  communica- 
tion, letters  were  addressed  by  Crumwell   to  two   distin- 

Dut  the  influence  of  Anne  Boleyn  1  But  he  was  still  too  selfish,  as  Cran- 
mer  was  too  timid,  to  risk  the  favor  of  Henry  by  any  direct  and  earnest 
efforts  in  behalf  of  Tyndale. 


MARTYE.DOM  OF  TYNDALE.       *     303 

guislied  persons  who  had  great  influence  at  the  court  of 
Brussels,  requesting  their  friendly  offices  iu  the  matter. 
Having  with  great  difficulty  obtained  the  desired  letters, 
Pointz  himself  repaired  Avith  them  to  England,  and  after 
a  month's  detention  for  Crumwell's  dispatches  in  reply,  re- 
turned with  all  haste  to  Brussels.  Here  he  laid  his  papers 
before  the  Council  and  awaited  its  decision.  This  was 
about  the  first  of  November,  1535. 

Things  now  looked  very  favorable  for  the  venerable 
prisoner,  and  Pointz  was  in  daily  expectation  that  he 
would  be  delivered  into  his  custody,  when  he  was  himself 
apprehended  by  the  Procurer-General,  and  placed  in  strict 
confinement.  This  was  the  work  of  the  infamous  Phillips. 
Perceiving  how  the  case  was  likely  to  turn,  he  could  think 
of  no  better  device,  than  boldly  to  accuse  Pointz  as  an  ad- 
herent of  Tyndale,  and  the  sole  mover,  from  mere  per- 
sonal and  party  motives,  of  the  measures  for  his  release. 
On  this  charge  he  had  been  seized ;  and  thus  the  good 
man,  instead  of  welcoming  his  friend  to  liberty,  found 
himself  a  prisoner,  and  in  imminent  hazard  of  his  life. 

An  imprisonment  of  more  than  three  months  followed, 
during  which  every  obstacle  was  thrown  in  the  way  of  his 
defence ;  while  he  was  loaded  with  enormous  prison 
charges,  for  which  immediate  payment  was  demanded, 
without  allowing  him  opportunity  to  procure  the  means. 
Satisfied  that  his  temporal  ruin,  if  not  his  death  was  re- 
solved on,  Pointz  determined  to  use  his  best  chance  for 
life  and  justice  by  making  his  escape.  This  he  eifccted 
under  cover  of  night  ;  and  being  well  acquainted  with  the 
country,  he  eluded  his  pursuers,  and  found  his  way  safely 
into  England. 

This  is  the  last   attempt  on   record,  for  the  deliverance 


304  THE   ENGLISH    BIBLE. 

of  Tjndale.  Could  Pointz  Lave  effected  anything  after 
his  return,  it  is  safe  to  conclude  that  he  would  have  done 
it  at  every  personal  risk.  Cranmer  and  Crumwell  were 
still  high  in  power ;  but  she  was  gone,  whose  womanly 
and  queenly  heart  had  once  infused  somewhat  of  its  own 
generous  warmth  and  courage  into  theirs,  and  who  had 
pleaded  with  the  capricious  King  for  truth  and  its  cham- 
pions. The  Reformer  was  now  abandoned  to  the  will  of 
his  enemies. 

The  imprisonment  of  Tyndale  seems  not  to  have  been 
as  harsh,  as  that  to  which  heretics  had  been  subjected  in 
England.  By  his  pious  efforts  the  jailor  and  his  family 
were  led  to  embrace  the  truth ;  and  their  kind  christian 
ministry  did  much,  no  doubt,  to  cheer  his  spirits  and  sof- 
ten the  hardships  of  his  situation.  He  was  allowed  the 
use  of  writing  materials,  and  sustained  an  animated  con- 
troversy with  the  Theological  Faculty  of  Louvain.  This 
was  permitted,  however,  for  the  puVpose  of  drawing  from 
him  an  avowal  of  sentiments,  which  might  serve  as  a  basis 
for  his  trial  and  condemnation.  For  under  the  imperial 
rule,  even  heretics  could  not  be  dealt  with  in  the  sum- 
mary style  so  much  in  vogue  with  Sir  Thomas  More  and 
the  English  bishops. 

About  a  year  and  three-quarters  thus  passed  away.  At 
length,  all  things  being  ripe,  his  enemies  pushed  the  matter 
to  a  conclusion. 

In  1530,  a  very  stringent  decree  against  heresy  had 
been  issued  at  Augsburg  under  the  Emperor's  authority, 
directed  particularly  against  the  doctrine  of  justification 
by  faith.  This  still  remained  in  full  force.  Tyndale  had 
long  been  known  as  the  chief  expositor  of  the  obnoxious 
doctrine ;  and  his  late  controversy  with  the  Doctors  of 


MARTYRDOM  OF  TYNDALE.  305 

Louvain,  had  given  occasion  to  a  most  explicit  statement 
of  bis  views.  Now,  tlie  Privy  Council  of  Brussels,  which 
had  full  jurisdiction  in  all  cases — religious  as  well  as  po- 
litical— was  completely  tinder  the  dominion  of  the  priests, 
having  for  its  President  a  high  diguitary  of  the  Romish 
church,  and  a  jbitter  opposer  of  the  truth — the  Bishop  of 
Palermo.  The  reigning  Princess  herself  was  a  mere  tool 
of  the  monks.  Two  years  before,  Erasmus  had  said  that 
"  those  animals  were  omnipotent  at  the  court  of  Brussels." 
Such  being  the  case — to  say  nothing  of  the  gold  with 
which  Phillips  was  so  liberally  supplied,  for  enlightening 
the  eyes  of  the  ministers  of  justice — it  would  have  been 
marvellous,  indeed,  had  the  unfriended  prisoner  received 
a  favorable  sentence.  All  the  forms  of  justice  were  allowed 
him.  He  declined,  however,  the  offered  assistance  of  an 
advocate  and  procurer,  saying  that  he  would  answer  for 
himself.  This  he  was  permitted  to  do ;  and  we  may  bo 
sure  that  his  judges  that  day  listened  to  an  exposition  of 
truth,  such  as  they  had  seldom  heard.  But  they  had  met 
to  condemn,  not  to  be  convinced ;  and  though  unable  to 
confute  his  arguments,  it  was  easy  to  prove  him  guilty 
under  the  decree  of  Auo;sbur<r. 

On  Friday,  the  sixth  of  October,  1536,  William  Tyndale 
was  led  forth  to  d^e.  Having  been  bound  to  the  stake,  he 
was  first  strangled,  and  his  dead  body  then  burned  to  ashes. 
His  last  words,  "  uttered  with  fervent  zeal,  and  in  a  loud 
voice,  were  these  :  '  Lord,  open  the  King  of  England's 
eyes!'" 

Thus  perished,  a  victim  to  priestcraft,  the  purest  of 
England's  patriots,  and  the  crown  of  her  martyrs — the  best 
and  greatest  man  of  his  time  ! 


CHAPTER    XII. 


TRIUMPH  OF  THE  PRINCIPLE. 

Nothing  is  more  common  ■with  tlie  enemies  of  truth 
than  to  suppose,  when  the  champion  of  a  great  principle 
is  struck  down,  that  the  principle  itself  is  dead.  Especially 
does  the  history  of  Bible  translation  abound  with  exem- 
plifications of  this  remark.  Every  step  of  progress  in  this 
foundation  work  of  Christian  philanthropy — without  which 
all  others  are  but  as  blossoms  without  root,  and  out  of  which 
all  others  spring  by  an  inevitable  law — has  been  marked 
with  martyrs.  Not  all  mart3'rs  at  the  stake,  like  Frith 
and  Tyudale  ;  but  martyrs  as  to  their  peace,  their  reputa- 
tion, the  good  will  and  respect  of  their  fellow-nien.  And 
what  have  the  "  haters  of  light"  accomplished  by  such  a 
policy  ?  Nothing,  except  to  verify  that  saying  of  our 
Lord,  in  which,  just  before  his  own  bitter  and  shameful 
death,  he  announced  the  prime  law  of  growth  in  his  king- 
dom ;  "  Except  a  corn  of  wheat  fall  into  the  ground  and 
die,  it  abidcth  alone ;  but  if  it  die,  it  bringeth  forth  much 
fruit." 

For  ten  years,  Tyndale  had  been  subjected  to  a  life  of 
extremest  privation  and  suffering.  An  exile  and  a  fugi- 
tive, with  no  certain  home,  pinched  with  poverty,  reviled 
as  a  traitor,  heretic,  and  blasphemer,  hunted  like  a  venom- 


TKIUMPH    OF    THE    PRINCIPLE.  307 

ous  reptile  from  one  hiding  place  to  another,  he  confessed, 
patient  and  heroic  as  he  was,  that  "very  death  were  more 
pleasant  to  him  than  life."  And  now,  the  purpose  of  his 
persecutors  was  accomplished.  The  great  heart,  and  busy 
brain,  and  hand  that  never  tired  in  the  service  of  human- 
ity, were  turned  to  ashes,  and  scattered  to  the  winds. 
This  was  their  hour,  and  the  power  of  darkness.  That 
light  blotted  out,  and  they  fancied  that  the  hated  influences 
it  had  called  into  being,  would  perish  with  it. 

At  this  point,  let  us  look  back  a  moment,  and  see  how 
far  their  past  experience  justified  such  a  hope. 

It  was  at  the  beginning  of  the  year  1526,  that  the  first 
copies  of  Tyndale's  New  Testament  appeared  in  England. 
From  the  moment  of  its  discovery  in  the  hands  of  the 
young  men  at  Oxford,  ecclesiastical  proscription,  sustained 
by  civil  statutes  "  dreadful  and  penal,"  had  been  directed 
against  it.  Those  convicted  of  the  crime  of  reading,  hear- 
ing, or  circula-ting  it,  were  fined,  whipped,  imprisoned, 
subjected  to  disgraceful  public  penance  ;  and  if  found  un- 
yielding, were  burned  at  the  stake.  Merchant  ships  were 
searched  for  it;  international  laws  forbade  its  importa- 
tion; it  was  bought  up  wliolesale  in  foreign  markets; 
great  church  dignitaries  presided  over  the  bonfires  in  which 
it  was  consumed,  as  at  a  solemn  religious  festival.  This 
policy  had  been  pursued  with  a  thoroughness  and  persist- 
ency unsurpassed  in  the  history  of  religious  persecution. 
And  what  was  the  result  ? 

In  1.529,  a  fifth  edition  of  the  proscribed  book  was  cir- 
culating in  England.  Sucli  had  been  the  demand  for  the 
word  of  God,  awakened  within  the  space  of  tliree  years! 
lu  1530,  the  year  of  Tunstal's  great  Bible-burning,  the 
people  were  reading  the  Pentateuch,  as  well  as  the  New 


308  THE    ENGLISH    BIBLE. 

Testament ;  and  in  the  words  of  Hall,  "  Bibles  came  thick 
and  threefold  into  England."  Two  years  later,  Sir  Thos. 
More  speaks  of  them  as  coming  iii  "  by  the  whole  vats-full 
at  once."  In  1534,  the  Convocation  itself  was  compelled, 
by  influences  which  had  become  too  strong  to  be  over- 
borne, to  ask  that  the  King  would  order  a  translation  of 
the  Scriptures  into  English.  In  the  Convocation  of  1536, 
the  lower  House  sent  to  their  superiors  a  "  protestation," 
respecting  the  alarming  spread  of  heresy  in  the  province 
of  Canterbury.  The  specifications  of  false  teaching  amount 
to  sixty-seven,  and  afford  a  most  gratifying  evidence  of  the 
progress  of  truth.  The  service  of  the  Mass,  worship  of 
saints,  auricular  confession,  penance,  absolution,  purgatory, 
are  conceded  to  have  become  matters  of  common  question. 
The  fifth  item  declares,  that  "  it  is  commonly  preached, 
taught,  and  spoken,  that  all  ceremonies  accustomed  in  the 
church,  which  are  not  clearly  expressed  in  Scripture,  must 
be  taken  away,  because  they  are  men's  inventions."  The 
fifty-sixth  complains,  that  "  by  preaching,  the  people 
have  been  brought  into  the  opinion  and  belief,  that  nothing 
is  to  be  believed,  except  it  can  be  proved  expressly  from 
Scripture  !"  But  still  more  striking  as  an  index  of  the 
times,  is  the  language  to  which  the  assembled  Bishops 
were  obliged  to  listen  from  one  of  their  own  number — 
Edward  Fox,  Bishop  of  Hereford.  Stokesly  having 
offered  to  confute  the  new  teaching  respecting  the  sacra- 
ments— not  only  by  Scripture,  but  by  the  old  doctors  and 
by  the  schoolmen  also — Fox  rose,  and  after  referring  to  the 
King's  command,  that  they  should  appeal  in  this  matter  to 
the  Holy  Scriptures  alone,  he  addressed  his  brethren  in 
these  noble  words : 

"  Think  ye  not  that  we  can,  by  any  sophistical  subtilities,  steal  out  of 


TRIUMPH   OF    THE    PRINCIPLE,  309 

the  world  again,  the  light  which  every  man  doth  see.  Christ  hath  so  light- 
ened the  world  at  this  time  that  the  light  of  the  Gospel  hath  put  to  flight 
all  misty  darkness  :  and  it  will,  shortly,  have  the  higher  hand  of  all  clouds, 
though  we  resist  in  vain  never  so  much.  The  lay  people  do  now  know  the 
Holy  Scripture  better  than  many  of  us.  And  the  Germans  have  made  the 
text  of  the  Bible  so  plain  and  easy,  by  the  Hebrew  and  Greek  tongue, 
that  now  many  things  may  bo  bettor  understood,  without  any  glosses  at  all, 
than  by  all  the  commentaries  of  the  doctors.  And,  moreover,  they  have  so 
opened  these  controversies  by  their  writings,  that  women  and  children  may 
wonder  at  the  blindness  and  falsehood  that  hath  been  hitherto.  AVherefore, 
ye  must  consider  earnestly  what  ye  will  determine  of  these  controversies, 
that  ye  make  not  yourselves  to  be  mocked,  and  laughed  to  scorn  of  all  the 
world ;  and  that  ye  bring  them  not  to  have  this  opinion  of  you,  to  think  ever- 
more hereafter  that  ye  have  not  one  spark  of  learning  nor  yet  of  godliness 
in  you.  And  thus  shall  ye  lose  all  your  estimation  and  authority  with 
them  which  before  took  you  for  learned  men  and  profitable  members  unto  the 
commonwealth  of  Christendom.  For  that  which  you  do  hope  upon,  that 
there  was  never  heresy  in  the  church  so  great,  but  that  process  of  time, 
with  the  power  and  authority  of  the  Pope,  hath  quenched  it — it  is  nothing 
to  the  purpose.  But  ye  must  turn  (change)  your  opinion,  and  think  thia 
surely,  that  there  is  nothing  so  feeble  and  weak,  so  that  it  be  true,  but  it 
shall  find  place,  and  be  able  to  stand  against  all  falsehood. 

"  Truth  is  the  daughter  of  time,  and  time  is  the  mother  of  truth.  And 
whatsoever  is  besieged  of  truth  cannot  long  continue ;  and  upon  whose  side 
truth  doth  stand  that  ought  not  to  be  thought  transitory,  or  that  it  will 
ever  fall.  All  things  consist  not  in  painted  eloquence,  and  strength,  or 
authority.  For  the  truth  is  of  so  great  power,  strength  and  eflficacity,  that 
it  can  neither  be  defended  with  words,  nor  be  overcome  with  any  strength : 
but  after  she  hath  hidden  herself  long,  at  length  she  putteth  up  her  head  and 
appeareth." 

Stokesly's  impatient  reply  to  this  and  similar  speeches, 
contained  an  undesigned,  but  most  satisfactory  confirma- 
tion of  what  Fox  had  asserted.  "  Let  us  grant,"  said  the 
incensed  prelate,  "  that  the  sacraments  may  be  gathered 
out  of  the  vrord  of  God  ;  yet  are  ye  far  deceived,  if  ye 
think  that  there  is  none  other  word  of  God,  but  that  which 

EVERY  SOUTER,  AND  COBBLER,  DOTH  READ  IN  HIS  MOTHER 

TONGUE  !"     Before  the  close  of  the  Convocation,  a  second 


310  THE    ENGLISH    BIBLE. 

petition  to  the  King  was  agreed  on,  praying  his  Majesty, 
"  that  he  would  graciously  permit  the  use  of  the  Scriptures 
'  to  the  laity,  and  that  a  new  translation  of  it  might  be 
forthwith  made  for  that  end  and  purpose."  A  wonderful 
change,  indeed,  since  the  day  when  it  was  safe  for  them  to 
declare  all  translations  into  the  vernacular  unlawful,  and 
when  the  Scriptures  were  themselves  denounced  as  heretical, 
and  decreed  "  to  be  clean  forbidden  and  banished  forever 
out  of  the  realm  of  England  !"  Not  that  the  Romish 
Bishops  were  any  more  cordial  in  their  hearts  to  such  a 
measure  than  they  had  ever  been ;  but  the  advocates  of 
the  Bible  had  now  become  the  stronger  party.  Their  in- 
fluence was  indeed  still  sufficient  to  prevent  the  recogni- 
tion of  either  of  the  existing  translations ;  and  they 
trusted,  by  a  "  masterly  inactivity"  in  preparing  a  new 
one,  to  put  far  off  the  evil  day.  But  they  had  at  least 
been  compelled  to  concede,  by  repeated  formal  acts,  the 
fundamental  principle,  that  it  is  safe  and  right  to  give  the 
laity  the  Scriptures  in  their  mother  tongue.  The  people, 
however,  did  not  wait  for  them.  From  the  year  1530, 
Tyndale's  New  Testament  had  been  coming  into  England 
at  the  rate  of  two  editions  annually  ;  and  at  least  nine  or 
ten  editions  crowned  the  year  of  his  martyrdom. 

Such  had  been  the  fruit  of  their  opposition  while  the 
man  still  lived,  who  had  been  instrumental  in  giving  the 
chief  impulse  to  this  mighty  movement.  Let  us  now  see 
what  they  accomplished  by  his  death. 

The  events  now  to  be  related  seem  so  strange,  so  far  out 
of  the  common  range  of  probabilities,  that  even  the  most 
skeptical  can  hardly  fail  to  discern  in  them  an  unseen 
Power,  carrying  headlong  the  counsels  of  the  crafty,  and 
turning  to  its  own  beneficent  ends  the  selfish  policy  of  am- 


TrauMrii  of  the  PRiNcirLE.  311 

bitious  statesmen,  and  the  caprices  of  a  cruel  despot.  To 
understand  this  part  of  our  history,  a  little  previous  ex- 
planation is  required. 

At  the  fall  of  Wolsey,  the  prospects  of  Thomas  C rum- 
well,  the  most  attached  and  distinguished  of  his  adherents, 
seemed  to  have  received  their  death  blow.  From  this 
fate,  he  extricated  himself  by  a  single  ste^:*,  equally  bold 
and  sagacious,  and  planted  his  foot  securely  on  the  ladder 
of  political  promotion.  Two  days  before  the  meeting  of 
Parliament,  he  left  the  residence  of  his  fallen  master,  say- 
ing to  one  of  the  household  :  "  I  shall  make  or  mar  ei-e  I 
come  again  !"  The  very  next  day,  he  obtained  an  inter- 
view with  Henry,  and  suggested  to  him  that  daring  line 
of  policy,  which  in  due  time  added  to  his  royal  title  that 
of  "  Supreme  Head  of  the  Church  in  England,"  and  re- 
duced the  proud  clergy  into  the  most  submissive  and  most 
liberal  of  vassals.  Another  item  of  this  great  plan,  was 
the  replenishment  of  the  King's  coffers  by  the  reduction 
of  monasteries,  and  confiscation  of  their  treasure  ;  but 
this  had  been  deferred  for  prudential  reasons  to  the  year 
1535,  when  the  King's  necessities  admitted  of  no  farther 
delay.  As  a  preliminary  step,  Crumwell — a  layman  and 
commoner,  without  high  connections,  or  even  an  educa- 
tion to  atone  for  want  of  rank — was,  by  an  exercise  of 
royal  power,  constituted  the  second  man  in  the  kingdom. 
By  his  office  as  the  King's  "  Vicegerent,  Vicar-General, 
Coouraissary  special  and  general,"  he  not  only  took  rank 
next  to  the  royal  family,  and  controlled  the  secular  affairs 
of  the  realm,  but  had  the  right,  in  the  King's  absence,  to 
preside  in  the  Convocations  of  the  clergy,  and  was  Supe- 
rior of  all  the  monasteries.  This  appointment  was  fol- 
lowed by  the  visitation  and  suppression,  in  the  most  sum- 


312  THE    ENGLISH    BIBLE, 

mary  style,  of  all  monasteries,  amounting  to  three  hundred 
and  seventy-six,  whose  income  did  not  exceed  £200  per 
annum ;  thus  augmenting  the  yearly  royal  revenue  by  the 
snuf^  little  sum  of  £75,200  —  e<juivalent  to  more  than 
a  million  dollars  of  our  time. 

This  was  very  gratifying ;  but  there  were  other  conse- 
quences not  so  pleasant.  Of  course,  we  can  find  no  fault 
with  the  dissolution  of  these  haunts  of  idleness  and  profii- 
o-aey.  But  the  wholesome  measure  was  effected  in  a  man- 
ner most  unjust  and  inhuman.  Talleyrand  would  have 
said,  it  was  worse  than  a  crime ;  it  was  a  blunder  !  Thou- 
sands of  persons  suddenly  ejected  from  their  comfortable 
homes,  and  turned  loose  upon  the  world  with  forty  shil- 
lings in  their  hands,  to  seek  living  and  belter  where  they 
could,  were  notUikely  to  be  preachers  of  loyalty,  or  of  the 
religion  under  whose  name  they  were  persecuted.  The 
bonest  heart  of  the  people,  moreover,  ever  sides  with  the 
oppressed.  Suffering  becomes  virtue  in  their  eyes.  And 
they  are  right;  for  cruelty,  in  whatever  form,  or  upon 
whomsoever  exercised,  is  the  very  spirit  of  the  lower  re- 
gions. The  secular  clergy  had  already  tasted  of  the  royal 
mercy ;  the  higher  monasteries  might  securely  count  upon 
their  own  doom  as  near  at  hand.  The  result  was  just 
what  might  have  been  expected.  In  the  month  of  October, 
1536,  a  formidable  insurrection  burst  forth,  which  threat- 
ened the  country  with  all  the  horrors  of  a  bloody  civil 
war.  In  Lincolnshire,  the  rising  was  twenty  thousand 
strong  ;  in  Yorkshire,  twice  that  number. 

By  the  firmness  and  energy  of  the  government,  the 
movement  was  soon  quelled  ;  but  it  had  given  formidable 
evidence,  that  Popery's  tough  roots  still  held  fast  to  the 
English  soil,  and  that  it  would  require  more  than  laws  of 


TfilUMPII    OF    THE    PRINCIPLE,  313 

sequestration,  or  force  of  arms,  to  eradicate  it.  The  keen 
eye  of  Crumwcll  saw  what  his  master's  had  failed  to  per- 
ceive— that  the  vicious  weed  which  could  not  be  torn  out 
from  the  earth  of  which  it  had  so  long  held  sole  occupancy, 
must  be  groivn  out  by  a  yet  stronger  plant.  Its  hold  must 
be  loosened  from  beneath,  or  the  work  on  the  surface  would 
be  done  only  to  be  repeated.  Behold,  then,  the  unpitying 
persecutor  of  Tyndale,  the  unscrupulous  and  worldly 
statesman,  whose  self-exaltation  was  the  god  of  his  wor- 
ship, making  it  one  of  his  chief  cares,  amid  the  overwhelm- 
ing toils  of  state,  and  the  engrossing  schemes  of  personal 
ambition,  to  provide  the  people  with  the  Word  of  God  ! 
In  this  is  revealed,  more  strikingly  than  in  his  most  bril- 
liant strokes  of  policy,  the  penetrating  intellect  of  this 
great  practical  genius.  His  ken  went  to  the  bottom  of  the 
elemental  causes  of  national  life,  and  discerned  that  the 
strength  of  the  new  order  of  things  lay  not  in  the  external 
power  of  government,  but  in  the  moral  sentiments  and 
convictions  of  the  people. 

Crumwell  had  already  given  his  countenance  and  aid  to 
the  efforts  of  Cranmer  and  Coverdale.  But  henceforward, 
we  perceive  in  his  movements  in  this  direction,  the  unwa- 
vering energy  of  a  clear  and  settled  purpose.  A  Bible, 
to  be  placed  by  authority  in  every  church  in  England,  to 
be  read  in  public  as  a  stated  part  of  the  religious  instruc- 
tion of  the  people,  while  free  access  to  it  should  be 
allowed  to  rich  and  poor,  who  might  desire  to  read  it  for 
themselves, — such  from  this  time  became  one  of  the  prime 
objects  of  this  great  politician.  From  what  follows  we 
should  judge,  that  he  had  converted  Henry  to  the  same 
view  ;  and  in  Archbishop  Cranmer  he  would  find  an  earn- 
est and  efficient  coadjutor,  from  purer  motives. 

14 


314  THE    ENGLISH    BIBLE. 

But  how  was  tliis  Bible  to  be  obtained  ?  It  was  hope- 
less to  look  for  one  from  the  Bishops ;  Cranmer's,  which 
from  the  very  method  employed  in  preparing  it  was  unfit 
for  a  standard  version,  had  fallen  to  the  ground ;  Cover- 
dale's  was  under  a  cloud,  on  account  of  its  connexion  with 
the  murdered  Queen.     For  the  version  which  is  to  become 

THE  FIRST  AUTHORIZED  ENGLISH  BiBLE,  We  mUSt  look  away 

from  England,  to  the  man  who  had  so  recently  suffered 
martyrdom  for  having  given  it  to  her  people. 

We  have  no  direct  information  in  regard  to  the  progress 
which  Tyndale  had  made  in  translating  the  Old  Testament, 
at  the  time  he  was  imprisoned  in  the  castle  of  Vilvorde. 
Only  the  Pentateuch  and  Jonah  had  been  given  to  the 
world ;  and  it  is  generally  supposed,  on  the  authority  of 
Hall  a  cotemporary  chronicler,  that  the  translation  had 
proceeded  no  farther  than  to  the  close  of  the  historical 
books.  But  there  are  certain  indisputable  facts  which  it 
is  difficult  to  harmonize  with  this  supposition. 

Soon  after  he  was  thrown  into  prison,  a  folio  edition  of 
the  entire  Bible,  containing  his  translations  already  pub- 
lished, and  completed  from  his  manuscripts  or  some  other 
source,  was  commenced  in  Germany  by  his  friend  and  fel- 
low exile,  John  Rogers.  It  was  finished  within  a  year 
after  his  death,  early  in  the  summer  of  1537,  and  published 
under  the  assumed  name  of  Thomas  Matthew,  hence  called 
Matthew's  Bible.  But  the  editor  claimed  it  for  his  friend, 
by  inserting  his  initials,  W.  T.,  in  conspicuous  ornamen- 
tal letters,  at  the  end  of  the  Old  Testament.*  Why  else 
should  he  have  placed  it  there ;  or  on  what  other  ground 
could  the  act  be  defended  from  the  charge  of  fraud  ?    The 

*  His  New  Testament  was  too  well  known  to  need  any  such  index  to  its 
author. 


TRIUMPH   OF   THE    rRINCIPLE.  315 

plea  that  Tynckle  had  not  had  time  to  complete  the  work, 
is  not  sustained  by  suflBcient  evidence.  Four  years  had 
elapsed  between  the  publication  of  the  Pentateuch  and  his 
imprisonment;  and  though  his  pen  was  indeed  busy  in 
other  ways,  we  have  no  reason  to  think  he  had,  on  this  ac- 
count, laid  aside  that  which  he  considered  pre-eminently 
his  life-work.  His  nearly  two  years'  imprisonment  would 
most  naturally  have  been  devoted  chiefly  to  its  completion  ; 
and  viewed  in  connexion  with  John  Rogers'  undertaking, 
we  can  hardly  doubt  it  was  so.  The  similarity  of  this 
portion  of  Matthew's  Bible  to  that  of  Coverdale  (pub- 
lished in  1535,)  has  given  rise  to  the  belief,  that  the  ver- 
sion of  the  latter  had  furnished  the  books  which  Tyndale 
had  not  been  able  to  translate.  But,  on  the  other  hand, 
there  are  striking  variations  from  that  version ;  and  since 
Coverdale  had  adopted  into  it  Tyndale's  well  known  trans- 
lation of  Jonah,  verbatim,  it  is  quite  as  reasonable  to  sup- 
pose, that,  during  the  period  he  was  abroad  preparing  his 
Bible,  he  had  access  to  the  manuscripts  of  Tyndale.  But, 
however  this  question  may  be  decided,  the  larger  and  more 
important  part  of  the  newly  edited  version  was,  without 
dispute,  the  work  of  the  martyred  Reformer,  the  very 
work  which  for  ten  years  had  been  proscribed  in  England. 
In  the  circumstances  of  its  introduction  into  the  king- 
dom, we  see  evidences  of  plan  and  concert,  not  to  be 
mistaken.  It  had  been  about  half  carried  through  the 
press  by  private  contributions  of  friends  of  the  Gospel, 
when  two  prominent  English  printers — Grafton  and  Whit- 
church— came  forward,  and  assumed  the  cost  and  risk  of 
completing  it.  As  soon  as  it  left  the  press,  Grafton  hast- 
ened over  the  sea,  with  a  single  copy  for  Archbishop  Cran- 
mer.     Finding,  on  his  arrival,  that  the  Primate  had  just 


316  THE    ENGLISH   BIBLE, 

quitted  London  on  account  of  the  plague,  he  hastened 
after  him  to  Forde,  his  country  residence,  in  Kent.  This 
could  not  have  been  before  the  1st  or  2d  of  August,  since 
Cranmer  was  still  on  duty  in  London  the  29th  of  July.* 
Yet  on  the  4th  of  August,  he  was  prepared  to  endorse  the 
entire  translation,  and  in  the  warmest  terms  to  recommend 
its  adoption,  as  the  Bible  to  be  authorized  by  his  Majesty 
for  use  in  the  churches,  and  for  universal  diffusion  among 
the  people.  His  letter  on  the  subject  to  Lord  Crumwell, 
is  as  follows  : 

"My  especial  good  Lord,  after  most  hearty  commendations  unto  your 
Lordship ;  these  shall  be  to  signify  unto  the  same,  that  you  shall  receive  by 
the  bringer  thereof  a  Bible,  both  of  a  new  translation  and  a  new  print,  dedi- 
cated unto  the  King's  Majesty,  as  farther  appeareth  by  a  pistle  unto  his 
Grace,  in  the  beginning  of  the  book,  which,  in  mine  opmion,  is  very  well 
done ;  and  therefore  I  pray  your  Lordship  to  road  the  same.  And  as  for 
the  translation,  so  far  as  I  have  read  thereof,  I  like  it  better  than  any  other 
translation  heretofore  made  ;  yet  not  doubting  thart  there  may  and  will  be 
found  some  fault  therein,  as  you  know  no  man  ever  did  or  can  do  so  well, 
but  it  may  from  time  to  time  be  amended. 

"  And  forasmuch  as  the  book  is  dedicated  unto  the  King's  Grace,  and  also 
great  pains  and  labour  taken  in  setting  forth  of  the  same,  I  pray  you,  my 
Lord,  that  3-ou  will  exhibit  the  book  unto  the  King's  Highness,  and  obtain 
of  his  Grace,  if  you  can,  a  license  that  the  same  may  be  sold  and  read  of 
every  person,  without  danger  of  any  act,  proclamation,  or  ordinance  hereto- 
fore granted  to  the  contrary,  until  such  time  that  we,  the  Bishops,  shall  set 
forth  a  better  translation,  which  I  think  will  not  be  till  the  day  after  dooms- 
day !  And  if  you  continue  to  take  such  pains  for  the  setting  forth  of  God's 
Word,  as  you  do,  although  in  the  mean  season  you  suffer  some  snubs  and 
many  slanders,  lies,  and  reproaches  for  the  same,  yet  one  day  He  will  re- 
quite all  together.  And  the  same  word,  as  St.  John  saith,  which  shall  judge 
every  man  at  the  last  day,  must  needs  show  favour  to  them  that  now  do  favour 
it.  Thus,  my  Lord,  right  heartily  fare  you  well.  At  Forde,  the  4th  day 
of  August,  [1537.]    Your  assured  ever.— T.  Cantuarieii." 

The  ■Vicai-C!':'neral  was  no  less  prompt.     While  all  the 
*  Anderson,  v »..  i.  p.  573 


TRIUMPH    OF    THE    TRINCirLE.  317 

Bishops  had  been  dispersed  by  fear  of  the  plague,  he  had 
remained  at  his  post,  apparently  to  see  this  matter  safely 
through.  The  absence  of  all  the  opposing  prelates,  left 
the  field  unobstructed,  and  he  used  the  opportunity  with 
his  usual  decision.  Within  eight  days  from  the  date  of 
the  above  letter,  Cranraer  acknowledges  the  receipt  of  in- 
formation from  his  Lordship,  that  he  had  exhibited  the 
translation  to  his  Majesty,  and  had  obtained  his  full  assent 
to  what  had  been  requestel!  Thus  in  less  than  a  fort- 
night from  the  first  arrival  of  Tyndale's  whole  Bible  in 
England,  it  is  decreed  to  be  "  set  forthwith  the  King's 
MOST  GRACIOUS  LICENSE;"  and  also,  that  it  "  be  sold  and 
read  of  every  person,  without  danger  of  any  act,  proclama- 
tion, or  ordinance  heretofore  granted  to  the  contrary!" 

The  next  year,  Crumwell,  "as  Vicegerent  unto  the 
King's  Highness,"  issued  the  following  "injunctions"  to  the 
clergy,  to  be  observed  and  kept,  on  pain  of  deprivation, 
sequestration  of  fruits,  or  such  other  coercion  as  to  the 
King's  Highness,  or  his  Vicegerent  for  the  time  being, 
shall  seem  convenient : 

First,  "  That  ye  shall  provide  before  the  ensuing  feast  of  the  Nativity. 
(December  25,)  one  book  of  the  whole  Bible,  of  the  largest  volume  in  Eng  ■ 
lish,*  and  the  same  set  up  in  some  convenient  place  within  the  said  church, 
that  ye  have  care  of,  where  your  parishioners  may  most  conveniently  re- 
sort to  the  same  and  read  it ;  the  charges  of  which  book  shall  be  rateably 
borne  between  you,  the  parson  and  parishioners  aforesaid— that  is  to  say, 
the  one  half  by  you,  the  other  half  by  them." 

Secondly,  "  That  ye  shall  discourage  no  man,  privily  or  apertly,  [openly,] 
from  the  reading  or  the  hearing  of  the  said  Bible  ;  but  shall  expressly  pro- 
voke, stir,  and  exhort  every  person  to  read  the  same  as  that  which  is  the 
very  lively  word  of  God,  that  every  Christian  person  is  bound  to  embrace, 
believe,  and  follow,  if  they  look  to  be  saved  ;  admonishing  them  nevcrthe- 

*  Thus  distinguishing  Tyndale's  from  the  two  editions  of  Coverdale  now  in 
the  market,  those  being  of  smaller  size.— Anderson,  Vol.  II.,  p.  34,    Note. 


318  THE   ENGLISH   BIBLE. 

less,  to  avoid  all  contention  and  altercation  therein,  but  to  use  an  honest  so- 
briety in  their  inquisition  of  the  true  sense  of  the  same,  and  to  refer  the  ex- 
plication of  the  obscure  places  to  men  of  higher  judgment  in  the  Scripture." 

Nor  did  Crumwell's  efforts  stop  here.  Already  the 
Popish  party  had  begun  to  rally.  For  a  while  the  scales 
fluctuated — now  to  this  side,  now  to  that ;  but  at  length 
settled  in  favor  of  Crumwell's  enemies.  During  the 
three  years  succeeding  the  time  when  he  welcomed  the 
vernacular  Bible  into  England,  all  his  powers  were  tasked 
to  meet  the  strange  and  ever-shifting  exigencies  of  the  con- 
flict. Through  this  entire  period,  he  urged  on  the  cause 
of  Bible-translation  and  circulation,  as  if  that  were  one  of 
the  essential  conditions  of  his  political  salvation.  In  1538, 
before  the  first  edition  of  Tyndale's  Bible  was  exhausted, 
he  had  persuaded  Henry  to  obtain  from  Francis  I,  per- 
mission for  printing  an  edition  of  the  English  Bible  in 
Paris,  where  it  could  be  executed  in  much  better  style 
than  in  England.  Thither  he  sent  Coverdale  and  Bonner 
— then  a  loud  advocate  for  vernacular  translations — to 
revise  the  version  and  superintend  the  press,  providing 
on  the  most  liberal  scale  every  thing  necessary  to  the 
fullest  success  of  the  undertaking.  At  the  end  of  six 
months,  the  interference  of  the  Inquisition  stopped  the 
work,  and  the  revisors  fled,  with  what  they  could  save,  to 
England.  But  Crumwell  was  not  to  be  thus  foiled.  He 
dispatched  agents  to  Paris,  who  returned  not  only  with 
the  presses  and  types,  but  even  with  the  French  printers ; 
and  in  some  six  weeks  the  work  was  again  progressing  on 
English  soil.  This  event  gave  a  great  impulse  to  the 
press,  and  especially  to  the  Bible  interest  in  the  kingdom; 
so  that  not  only  the  interrupted  edition  was  successfully 


TRIUMPH   OF   THE   rPaNCIPLE.;  319 

completed,  but  it  became  tbc  parent  of  many  others,  pub- 
lished in  the  heart  of  England.  In  the  year  1539,  no 
fewer  than  four  editions  of  the  entire  Scriptures  in  Eng- 
lish, were  issued  under  Crumwell's  immediate  patronage. 
During  this  same  period,  moreover,  he  was  encouraging 
and  aiding  other  translators  to  contribute  their  versions  to 
the  general  stock ;  thus,  in  every  way,  laboring  to  multiply 
Bibles  among  the  people. 

A  beautiful  picture  is  given  by  Strype,  in  his  Life  of 
Cranmer,*  of  the  influence  of  this  diffusion  and  free  use  of 
the  Scriptures.  It  was  a  jubilee  among  the  poor  of  Eng- 
land, when,  for  the  first  time  in  the  national  history,  they 
could  listen,  from  Sabbath  to  Sabbath,  to  "  the  sweet  and 
glad  tidiiigs  of  the  Gospel,"  without  the  fear  of  prisons, 
the  scourge,  and  the  stake.  "  It  was  wonderful,"  he  says, 
"  to  see  with  what  joy  this  book  of  God  was  received,  not 
only  among  the  learnedcr  sort,  and  those  that  were  noted 
for  lovers  of  the  reformation,  but  generally  all  England 
over,  among  all  the  vulgar  and  common  people ;  and  with 
what  greediness  God's  word  was  read,  and  what  resort  to 
places  where  the  reading  of  it  was.  Every  body  that 
could,  bought  the  book,  and  busily  read  it ;  or  got  others 
to  read  it  to  them,  if  they  could  not  themselves ;  and  divers 
more  elderly  people  learned  to  read  on  purpose.  And 
even  little  boys  flocked  among  the  rest  to  hear  portions  of 
the  Holy  Scriptures  read."  When  has  such  an  intellec- 
tual awakening  of  the  masses  ever  been  witnessed,  in  the 
whole  history  of  the  world,  as  the  fruit  of  Popish  policy  ! 
If  Crurawell  was  an  unprincipled  and  ambitious  man,  he 
was,  nevertheless,  a  wise  legislator,  and  a  true  benefactor 
of  the  people. 

*  Pago  91. 


320 


THE    ENGLISH   BIBLE. 


But  the  star  which  had  shot  so  rapidly  into  the  zenith, 
had  long  since  culminated,  and  now  suddenly  sunk  to  rise 
no  more.  Henry's  popish  counsellors  had  now  wholly 
gained  his  ear  ;  and  Crumwell,  by  forwarding  the  marriage 
with  Anne  of  Cleves,  to  whom  the  King  had  taken  an  in- 
superable disgust,  had  incurred  his  master's  bitter  resent- 
ment. On  the  tenth  of  June,  he  was  arrested  on  charge 
of  high  treason  ;  and  being  condemned  with  scarcely  the 
decent  show  of  justice, — a  fate,  alas,  too  well  merited  by 
his  own  dealings  in  similar  cases, — he  was  beheaded  in  the 
Tower,  July  28,  1540. 

But  as  the  death  of  Tyndale  had  not  arrested  the  pro- 
gress of  this  glorious  cause,  so  neither  did  the  fall  of  its 
illustrious  patron.  New  editions  of  the  English  Bible 
still  issued  from  the  press,  and  Henry  again  and  again 
repeated  his  injunctions  for  its  use  in  the  public  service  of 
religion.  So  possessed  had  he  become  with  the  idea  of 
diffusing  it  among  his  people,  that  Bishops  Tunstal  and 
Heath,  most  bitter  opposers  of  vernacular  translation, 
were  compelled  by  his  authority  to  affix  their  names  aa 
editors  to  two  impressions  of  the  great  Bible.  Immediate- 
ly after  the  publication  of  the  injunctions  of  1540,  the 
bloody-hearted  Bonner  set  up  six  large  Bibles  in  St.  Paul's, 
for  the  accommodation  of  those  who  wished  to  read, — such 
a  passport  at  that  time,  was  zeal  in  the  cause,  to  royal 
favor  !  The  eagerness  with  which  the  people  embraced 
this  opportunity  shows,  that  with  all  the  Bibles  published, 
little  had  yet  been  done  towards  supplying  the  demand 
for  the  word  of  God.  "  They  came,"  it  is  said,  "instantly 
and  generally  to  hear  the  Scriptures  read.  Such  as  could 
read  with  a  clear  voice,  often  had  great  numbers  round 


TRIUMPH    OF    THE    PRINCIPLE.  321 

tliem.  Many  set  their  ctildren  to  school,  and  carried 
them  to  St.  Paul's  to  hear."  Most  interesting  must  have 
been  the  groups  collected,  Sabbath  after  Sabbath,  in  the 
crypt  of  that  ancient  cathedral.  The  great  folio  Bibles, 
scattered  at  convenient  distances  through  the  vast  dim 
interior,  each  chained  to  a  massive  pillar,  the  lamp  above 
illuminating  the  reader  and  the  black-letter  page  over  which 
he  bent,  and  the  little  congregation  gathered  close  around, 
formed  an  apt  emblem  of  the  condition  of  England  gene- 
rally at  that  time. 

This  state  of  things  could  not  long  continue.  The  con- 
flict between  light  and  darkness,  now  approaching  its  ter- 
mination, was  not  to  close  without  another  desperate  strug- 
gle. Henry,  in  '  graciously '  vouchsafing  to  his  subjects 
the  boon  of  reading  the  Scriptures,  had  not  properly  con- 
sidered the  danger  that,  while  so  doing,  they  might  acquire 
the  pernicious  habit  of  thinking  for  themselves.  Against 
this  he  had  taken  every  possible  precaution,  by  connecting 
with  permission  to  read  and  hear  the  Bible,  strict  charges 
to  avoid  all  comment  and  discussion  in  respect  to  its  con- 
tents ;  and  still  more  eflfectually  by  his  Acts  "  to  establish 
Christian  quietness  and  unity,"  of  which  especially  the  one 
in  1539,  known  as  the  Six  Articles,  or  more  appropriately, 
as  The  Whip  with  six  cords,  was  regarded  as  *'  an  end  of 
all  controversy."  The  doctrines  enjoined  by  this  statute 
were,  1.  Transubstantiation.  2.  Communion  under  both 
kinds  not  necessary  to  salvation.  3.  Priests  may  not 
marry,  by  the  law  of  Grod.  4.  Vows  of  chastity  (celibacy) 
binding.  5.  Private  masses  to  be  retained.  6.  Auricular 
confession  useful  and  necessary.  Its  penalties  were :  for 
denial  of  the  first  article,  death  at  the  stake,  without  pri- 
14* 


322  THE   ENGLISH   BIBLE, 

vilege  of  abjuration ;  for  the  five  others,  death  as  a  felon, 
or  imprisonment  during  his  Majesty's  pleasure.* 

But  it  was  beyond  any  human  power,  to  join  two  things 
so  opposed  in  their  natures,  as  the  study  of  the  word  of 
God,  and  servile  submission  to  the  will  of  man,  in  matters 
of  religious  faith.  It  is  at  the  point  where  these  rival 
influences  meet  in  conflict,  above  all  others,  that  the  "  di- 
vinity within  us  "  vindicates  its  heavenly  origin,  and  the 
soul  of  the  unlettered  peasant,  or  of  the  timid  woman,  or 
even  of  the  little  child,  rises  up  in  the  conscious  dignity 
of  a  child  of  God,  and  claims  here  full  equality  with  the 
proudest  monarch.  It  was  especially  in  regard  to  the  first 
of  these  prescribed  articles, —  Transubstantiation, — that 
the  readers  of  the  Bible  found  it  impossible  to  harmonize 
their  views  with  those  of  the  King.  As  from  the  time  of 
Wicklifie  to  the  separation  of  England  from  Rome,  the  re- 
jection of  this  doctrine  had  distinguished  those  who  re- 
ceived the  Scriptures  as  supreme  authority,  from  those 
who  acknowledged  the  supremacy  of  the  church  with  the 
pope  for  its  head  ;  so  had  it  ever  since  distinguished  them 
from  those  who  acknowledged  the  supremacy  of  the  church 
with  the  King  for  its  head.  It  was  the  test-point  in  the 
trials  of  the  Lollards  both  in  the  fifteenth  and  sixteenth 
centuries;  and  the  blood  of  Bilney,  Bainham,  Frith, 
and  many  others,  had  flowed  during  this  reign,  as  obla- 

*  The  same  abject  Parliament  which  authorized  this  bloody  statute,  as- 
sumed and  made  it  law,  that  Parliament  was  competent  to  condemn  to 
death  persons  accused  of  high  treason,  uithout  any  previous  trial  or  con- 
fession ;  and  then,  by  another  law,  passed  oyer  this  power  into  the  hands 
of  Henry,— enacting  that  "the  King,  with  advice  of  his  Council,  might  set 
forth  proclamations,  with  pains  and  penalties  in  them,  which  were  to  be 
obeyed  as  if  made  by  act  of  Parliament."  He  was  thus  constituted  sole 
proprietor  of  the  lives  and  property  of  Ms  subjects. 


TRIUMPH    OF    THE    TRINCirLE.  323 

tions  to  this  monstrous  dogma.  So  late  as  1538,  the 
learned  and  pious  Lambert  had  perished  for  the  same 
ofience,  after  enduring  a  trial  of  "  cruel  mocking,"  at 
which  Henry  presided,  in  awful  state,  clad  all  in  white 
— the  symbol  of  the  spotless  purity  of  his  faith  !  The  pas- 
sage of  The  Six  Articles  was  the  signal  for  a  fresh  onset 
upon  the  adherents  of  the  Scriptures.  The  Bishops,  who 
were  charged  with  the  ofl&ce  of  carrying  the  statute  into 
effect,  sprang  like  unleashed  blood-hounds  on  the  prey. 
Within  fourteen  days  they  had  indicted  five  hundred  per- 
sons in  London  alone  ;  and  it  was  clear  that  the  number 
of  offenders  would  soon  exceed  the  capacity  of  the  city 
prisons.  This  was  considerably  more  than  Henry  had 
asked  of  the  zeal  of  his  bishops ;  for  he  wished  to  strike  a 
wholesome  terror  into  the  community  by  a  few  examples, 
not  to  make  a  wholesale  massacre  of  his  subjects.  By  the 
advice  of  Crumwell  (the  year  before  his  death),  he  repeated 
the  expedient  of  Henry  V.  in  a  similar  case ;  and,  by  a 
royal  pardon,  quashed  the  indictment,  so  that  of  the  five 
hundred  accused,  not  one  was  brought  to  trial,  and  the 
fiendish  attempt  only  served  to  bring  out  more  distinctly 
the  strength  of  the  party  it  had  sought  to  crush.  Still 
the  statute  remained  in  force,  and  the  war  with  the  "  Sa- 
cramentarians  "  was  waged,  if  not  on  so  bold  a  scale,  with 
no  less  malignity,  to  the  close  of  Henry's  reign. 

At  length  the  King  seems  to  have  been  convinced,  that 
lie  could  not  establish  his  own  will  as  the  standard  of  faith 
among  his  people,  while  they  were  allowed  the  use  of  the 
Bible.  It  was  therefore  enacted  by  Parliament  in  1543, 
"  that  all  manner  of  books  of  the  Old  and  New  Testament 
in  English,  of  Tyndale's  crafty,  false,  and  untrue  trans- 
lation, should  by  authority  of  this  Act,  clearly  and  utterly 
be  abolished  and  extinguished,  and  forbidden  to  be  kept 


324  THE    ENGLISH    BIBLE. 

and  used  in  this  realm,  or  elsewbere,  in  any  of  the  King's 
dominions." 

And  farther,  "  that  no  manner  of  persons,  after  the  first 
of  October,  should  take  upon  them  to  read  openly  to 
others,  in  any  church  or  open  assembly,  within  any  of  the 
King's  dominions,  the  Bible  or  any  part  of  Scripture  in 
English,  unless  he  was  so  ai:)pointed  thereunto  by  the  King 
or  by  any  ordinary,  on  pain  of  suffering  one  month's  im- 
prisonment." 

And  farther,  "  That  no  women,  except  noble  women  and 
gentle  women,  might  read  the  Bible  to  themselves  alone ; 
and  no  artificers,  apprentices,  journeymen,  servingmen,  of 
the  degrees  of  yeomen,  husbandmen,  or  laborers,  were  to 
read  the  Bible  or  New  Testament  to  themselyes  or  any 
other,  privately  or  openly,  on  paiu  of  one  month's  impris- 
onment." 

How  vividly  do  these  enactments  mirror  the  times ;  re- 
vealing the  wide-spread  and  inextricable  hold  which  the 
Bible  had  gained  upon  the  English  masses  !  When  "  ap- 
prentices, journeymen,  servingmen,  husbandmen,  and  la- 
borers "  had  once  learned  to  read  the  Bible,  it  was  certain 
that  no  laws  could  recall  it  from  the  nation's  hands.  So 
the  imperious  monarch  found  it;  for  three  years  later,  this 
statute  was  followed  by  another  still  more  sweeping,  viz. 
*'  that  from  henceforth,  no  man,  woman,  or  person,  of  what 
estate,  condition,  or  degree  he  or  they  shall  be,  shall,  after 
the  last  day  of  August  next  ensuing,  receive,  have,  take, 
or  keep  in  his  or  their  possession,  the  text  of  the  New 
Testament  of  Tyndale's  or  Coverdale's,  nor  any  other  that 
is  permitted  by  the  Act  of  Parliament,  made  in  the  session 
of  Parliament  holden  at  Westminster,  in  the  thirty-fourth 
and  thirty-fifth  year  of  his  Majesty's  most  noble  reign." 


TKIUMPII    OF    THE    riUNCIPLE.  325 

Eight  days  after  the  passage  of  thia  Act,  July  16, 
1546  the  heroic  Anne  Askew  perished  with  three 
companions  at  the  stake,  for  refusing  to  acknowledge  Hen- 
ry's Popish  doctrine  of  the  Mass.  How  entirely  the  recep- 
tion of  the  Scriptures,  as  supreme  authority,  was  identified 
with  rejection  of  the  special  dogmas  of  his  Roman-English 
church,  is  seen  from  the  dying  words  of  this  intrepid 
woman :  "  Finally,  I  believe  all  those  Scriptures  to  be 
true  which  he  hath  confirmed  with  his  most  precious  blood. 
Yea,  and  as  St.  Paul  saith,  those  Scriptures  are  sufficient 
for  our  learning  and  salvation,  that  Christ  hath  left  here 
with  us ;  so  that  I  believe  we  need  no  uNwr.iTTEN  veri- 
ties to  rule  his  Church  with.  Therefore,  look,  what  he 
hath  said  unto  me  with  his  own  mouth  in  the  Holy  Gos- 
pel, that  have  I,  with  God's  grace  closed  up  in  my  heart; 
and  my  full  trust  is,  as  David  saith,  that  it  shall  be  a  lan- 
tern to  my  footsteps."* 

On  the  28th  of  January,  1547,  Henry  VIII  was  sum- 
moned to  meet  the  victims  of  his  personal  resentment,  and 
of  his  murderous  religious  zeal, — a  fearful  host ! — at  the 
bar  of  the  righteous  Judge.  His  son  Edward  VI,  the 
English  Josiah,  succeeded  to  the  throne.  The  stream 
which  had  been  for  a  while  repressed  now  burst  forth 
with  gathered  strength ;  and  this  short  reign,  less  than  six 
and  a  half  years,  was  signalized  by  at  least  fourteen  editions 
of  the  whole  Bible,  and  thirty-six  of  the  New  Testament.! 
A  brief  interruption  succeeded  this  period  of  prosperity, 
during  the  reign  of  Mary.  But  from  that  time  to  the 
present,  a  period  of  three  hundred  years,  the  Anglo-Saxon 
race  has  never  seen  the  day  when  its  rich  and  its  poor 
might  not  read,  in  their  own  tongue  wherein  they  were 
*  Anderson,  vol.  IT,  p.  198.    1 1^'  237. 


326  THE    ENGLISH    BIBLE. 

born,  unmolested  by  Church  or  State,  the  wonderful  works 

of  God  !    THE    PPaNCIPLE    HAD    TRIUMPHED. 


Wickliffe  gave  England  her  first  Bible ;  Tyndale  her 
first  Bible  translated  from  the  original  Hebrew  and  Greek 
Scriptures.  Thus  was  fully  developed  the  great  Protest- 
ant principle,  announced  by  Wickliffe  nearly  a  century 
and  a  half  before.  For  the  same  principle  which  demands 
the  Inspired  Word  as  the  sole  standard  of  religious  faith, 
demands  also  the  most  exact  representation  of  it  which  it 
is  possible  to  obtain.  This  is  obvious  on  a  moment's 
thought.  Every  translation,  however  able  and  honest,  is 
but  a  human  reflexion  of  God's  revelation  of  truth,  and  as 
such,  is  liable  to  the  imperfection  which  attaches  to  every 
thing  human.  The  philological  principles  of  the  transla- 
tor may  sometimes  mislead  him,  or  his  religious  creed  may 
bias  his  judgment  of  words  ;  or,  in  process  of  time,  through 
the  vicissitudes  of  language,  or  corruptions  in  the  church, 
renderings  which  were  once  a  just  expression  of  the  origi- 
nal may  come  to  convey  a  false  meaning.  These  consid- 
erations apply  with  double  force  to  a  second  hand  trans- 
lation, every  remove  from  the  original  making  the  conclu- 
sions proportionably  unreliable.  Hence  Wickliffe's  ver- 
sion, venerable  as,  the  first  English  Bible,  and  endeared  by 
the  associations  of  a  hundred  years  of  persecution,  was  at 
once  set  aside  on  the  appearance  of  another  drawn  directly 
from  the  inspired  sources. 

But  to  accept  any  version,  to  stand  for  all  time  in  place 
of  the  sacred  originals,  was  contrary  to  the  spirit  of  primi- 
tive English  Christianity.  The  glass  through  which  the 
grand  outlines  of  truth  could  be  discerned,  was  dear  for  so 
much  of  the  truth  as  it  revealed ;  another,  which  revealed 


TRIUMPH   OF   THE   rPJNCIPLE.  327 

more,  was  dearer  still.  \Ye  shall  observe  the  influence  of 
this  spirit  through  the  whole  subsequent  history  of  Bible 
translation  in  England.  The  Christian  scholars  of  that 
age  were  fired  with  a  generous,  sacred  emulation  to  render 
THE  People's  Bible  a  perfect  reflexion  of  the  inspired 
Word.  In  the  track  of  Tyndale's  noble  version  sprang 
up  a  long  line  of  revisions  and  translations,  which  were 
gratefully  accepted  by  the  church  of  Christ  as  independent 
witnesses,  of  whom  one  might  correct  the  errors  of  another, 
and  whose  agreeing  testimony  made  the  truth  doubly  certain. 
But  for  the  New  Testament  of  Tyndale  a  peculiar  honor 
was  reserved.  It  furnished  not  only  the  basis,  but,  in 
great  part,  the  substance  of  all  that  followed.  To  a  com- 
mand of  Greek  learning  surpassed  by  none  of  his  age,  Tyn- 
dale added  those  higher  qualities  of  a  translator  of  the 
Scriptures  so  eminently  possessed  by  his  great  predecessor, 
a  mind  of  large  grasp  and  earnest  force,  illuminated  by  a 
heart  which  knew  but  the  single  sublime  aimto  ascertain 
the  revealed  will  of  God  and  make  it  worthily  known  to  man. 
A  mind  so  qualified  for  the  task  could  not  but  express  itself 
with  a  noble  freedom,  a  simple  majesty,  in  harmony  with  the 
inspired  utterances  of  truth.  The  successors  of  Tyndale 
recognized  in  his  translation  that  impress  of  the  master 
spirit ;  and  while  they  corrected  its  errors  without  scruple, 
by  the  increasing  light  of  sacred  scholarship,  they  trans- 
ferred the  body  of  it,  unchanged,  into  their  own  versions. 
Like  a  gem  repeatedly  new  cut  and  polished,  it  has  been 
handed  down  from  generation  to  generation,  the  most  precious 
heir-loom  of  the  English  race;  and  we,  at  this  day,  read  in 
large  portions  of  our  common  version,  the  very  words  with 
which  Tyndale  clothed  the  Scriptures  for  the  men  of  his 
own  age,  in  those  times  of  conflict  and  of  blood. 


CHAPTER  XIII. 


COVERDALE'S  BIBLE. 

This  version  deserves  special  notice,  as  one  of  the  most 
marked  indications  of  the  new  impulse  in  favor  of  vernacu- 
lar translations  effected  by  Tjndale's  early  labors.  It 
claims  veneration,  too,  as  the  first  translation  of  the  whole 
Bible  circulated  in  England.  For,  though  strictly  the  off- 
spring of  the  state  of  public  opinion  created  by  his  greater 
contemporary,  and  commenced  several  years  after  the  pub- 
lication of  Tyndale's  New  Testament  and  Pentateuch, 
Coverdale's  version  made  its  appearance  some  two  years 
prior  to  Rogers'  edition  of  Tyndale's  Bible. 

Miles  Coverdale  was  educated  at  Cambridge,  and  was  a 
pupil  and  intimate  friend  of  Barnes,  then  the  great  orna- 
ment of  the  University  in  liberal  learning,  and  the  chief 
leader  at  Cambridge  of  the  religious  party,  stigmatized  by 
the  Romanists  as  "  the  new  learning."  When  Barnes  was 
arrested  by  Cardinal  Wolsey,  Coverdale  was  one  of  those 
who  stood  faithfully  by  their  teacher,  following  him  to 
London,  and  assisted  in  preparing  his  defence.  It  is  sup- 
posed that  the  favor  of  Crumwell,  then  a  protege  of  "Wol- 
sey,  secured  him  from  the  immediate  consequences  of  so 
bold  a  step.     But  in  1528,  having  been  accused  of  preaching 


COVERDALE  S    BIBLE.  329 

against  tlie  confessional,  the  worship  of  images,  and  the 
doctrine  of  transubstantiation,  he  was  obliged  to  withdraw 
from  England,  and  his  steps  cannot  be  distinctly  traced  for 
several  succeeding  years.  Foxe  states  that  he  joined  Tyn- 
dale  on  the  continent,  and  assisted  him  in  the  translation 
of  the  Pentateuch ;  but  of  this  there  is  no  reliable  proof. 

It  is  not  certain  at  what  time  he  commenced  his  own 
translation.  He  seems  to  have  been  moved  to  the  under- 
taking by  a  deep  feeling  of  the  need  of  the  Word  of  God 
in  English,  as  the  only  remedy  for  the  moral  wretchedness 
of  the  nation  ;  joined  to  a  fear  that  Tyndale  would  not  be 
able,  under  the  heavy  pressure  of  persecution,  to  complete 
the  great  work  which  he  had  begun.  Yet  such  was  his 
modest  estimate  of  his  own  qualifications  for  such  a  task, 
that  he  would  not,  he  avers,  have  assumed  the  responsibil- 
ity, but  for  the  urgent  solicitations  of  those  with  whose 
wishes  he  felt  bound  to  comply.  In  this,  doubtless,  he 
refers  to  his  great  friend  and  patron,  Thomas  Crumwell. 

In  his  Prologue  to  the  Christian  reader,  prefixed  to  his 
translation,  he  thus  explains  his  feelings  and  motives  : 

"  Considering  how  excellent  knowledge  and  learning  an  interpreter  of 
Scripture  ought  to  have  in  the  tongueg,  and  pondering  also  mine  own  insuffi- 
ciency therein,  and  how  weak  I  am  to  perform  the  office  of  translator,  I  was 
the  more  loath  to  meddle  with  this  work.  Notwithstanding,  when  I  considered 
how  great  pity  it  was  that  we  should  want  it  so  long,  and  called  to  remem- 
brance the  adversity  of  them  which  were  not  only  of  ripe  knowledge,  but  would 
also  with  all  their  hearts  have  performed  that  they  begun,  if  they  had  not  had 
impediment ;  considering,  I  say,  that  by  reason  of  their  adversity,  it  could 
not  so  soon  have  been  brought  to  an  end,  as  our  most  prosperous  nation 
would  fain  have  had  it ;  these  and  other  reasonable  causes  considered,  I  was 

the  more  bold  take  it  in  hand But  to  say  the  truth  before  God, 

it  was  neither  my  labor  or  desire  to  have  this  work  put  in  my  hand  ;  nev- 
ertheless it  grieved  me  that  other  nations  should  be  more  plenteously  pro- 
vided for  with  the  Scriptures  in  their  mother  tongue  than  we ;  therefora 


330  THE   ENGLISH   BIBLE. 

when  I  was  instantly  required,  though  I  could  not  do  it  as  well  as  I  would, 
I  thought  it  yet  my  duty  to  do  my  best  and  that  with  a  good  will." 

It  had  beeu  ai-gued  that  a  variety  of  translations  must 
necessarily  endanger  the  unity  of  the  faith.  He  meets  this 
objection  by  an  appeal  to  Christian  history  : 

"  Whereas  some  men  think  now  that  many  translations  make  division  in 
the  faith  and  in  the  people  of  God,  yet  it  is  not  so  ;  for  it  was  never  better 
with  the  congregation  of  God,  than  when  every  church  almost  had  the  Bible 
of  a  sundry  translation.  Among  the  Greeks,  had  not  Origen  a  special  trans- 
lation 1 Beside  the  seventy  interpreters,  is  there  not  the  translation 

of  Aquila,  of  Theodotio,  ofSymachus  and  of  sundry  other  1  Again,  among 
the  Latin  men  thou  findest  that  every  one  almost  used  a  special  translation  ; 
for  insomuch  as  every  bishop  had  the  knowledge  of  tongues,  he  gave  his 

diligence  to  have  the  Bible  of  his  own  translation Therefore  ought 

it  not  to  be  taken  as  evil,  that  such  men  as  have  understanding  now  in  our 
time,  exercise  themselves  in  the  tongues,  and  give  their  diligence  to  trans- 
late out  of  one  language  into  another.  Tea,  we  ought  rather  to  give  God 
thanks  therefor,  which  through  his  spirit  stirreth  up  men's  minds,  so  as  to 
exercise  themselves  therein.  Would  God  it  had  never  been  left  off  after 
the  time  of  St.  Augustine  ;  then  should  we  never  have  come  into  such  blind- 
ness and  ignorance,  and  into  such  errors  and  delusions 

Seeing  then  that  this  diligent  exercise  of  translating  doth  so  much  good, 
and  edif3'eth  in  other  languages,  why  should  it  do  evil  in  otirs  7  Doubtless 
like  as  all  nations,  in  the  diversity  of  speeches,  may  know  one  God  in  the 
unity  of  faith,  and  be  one  in  love ;  even  so  may  diverse  translations  under- 
stand one  another,  and  that  in  the  head  articles  and  ground  of  our  most  blessed 
faith,  though  they  use  sundry  words.  Wherefore,  we  think,  we  have  great 
occasion  to  give  thanks  unto  God,  that  he  hath  opened  unto  his  church  the 
gift  of  interjirctation  and  of  printing,  and  that  there  are  at  this  time  so 
many,  which,  with  such  diligence  and  faithfulness,  interpreteth  the  Scrip- 
ture to  the  honor  of  God  and  the  edifying  of  his  people." 

Coverdale  only  claimed  for  his  version,  according  to  his 
title  page,  that  it  was  translated  out  of  "  Douch  and 
Latin."  He  speaks  also  of  having  had  by  him  five  several 
translations,  and  of  having  "  followed  his  interpreters." 
He  was  a  respectable  Hebrew  scholar,  and  doubtless  had 
constant  reference  to  the  text  of  the  original ;  but  he  seems 
not  to  have  felt  sufficient  reliance  on  his  own  scholarship, 


COVERDALE  S    BirSLB.  331 

to  venture  on  a  really  independent  translation.  For  the 
same  cause  his  version  compares  ill  with  Tyndale's  in  re- 
spect to  stj'^le ;  wanting  that  bold  step  and  that  rich  ex- 
pressiveness, which  can  only  come  from  the  actual  contact 
of  the  translator's  mind  with  the  thoughts  he  is  to  render, 
in  their  original  forms.  Yet  his  version  is,  in  the  main, 
clear  and  correct,  and  in  some  passages  shows  a  more  felic- 
itous rendering  than  any  which  came  after.  Its  most  se- 
rious fault  is  found  in  its  conformity,  in  some  important 
particulars,  to  the  Latin  Vulgate. 

The  King's  license  had  been  obtained  for  this  Bible ; 
and  it  was  dedicated  to  him  "  and  his  most  dearest,  just 
wife,  Anne."  The  decline  of  the  Queen's  influence,  and  her 
fall  soon  after  its  appearance  in  England,  threw  a  cloud 
for  awhile  over  the  enterprise.  But  after  it  had  been  long  de- 
layed in  the  hands  of  the  bishops,  to  whom  Henry  had  com- 
mitted it  for  examination,  he  at  length  demanded  their 
opinion.  They  replied  that  it  had  many  faults.  "  But," 
said  he,  "  are  there  any  heresies  maintained  thereby  ?" 
When  they  replied  that  there  were  none  as  they  had  per- 
ceived,— "  Then  in  God's  name,"  cried  the  impatient  mon- 
arch, "  let  it  go  abroad  among  our  people."*  Subsequent- 
ly, there  is  reason  to  believe,  an  injunction  was  issued  by 
Crurawell  for  its  use  in  churches ;  but  from  some  cause 
this  never  went  into  effect.  The  version  found,  however, 
considerable  circulation,  so  that  a  new  edition  was  pub- 
lished the  next  year ;  but  it  never  received  very  general  fa- 
vor, and  was  soon  superseded  by  that  of  Tyndale. 

How  far  Coverdale  was  from  the  arrogance  and  envy  of 
narrow  minds,  is  seen  in  the  fact  that  he  entered  most  cor- 
dially into  Crumwell's  plan,  in  1538,  of  republishing  Tyn- 
dale's version  at  Paris,  and  making  it  the  authorized  Bi- 
*  Bagster's  edition  of  Coverdale's  Bible,  Memoir,  p.  13. 


332  THE    ENGLISH    BIBLE. 

ble  of  the  kingdom,  to  be  employed  in  tlie  public  service 
of  religion  to  the  exclusion  of  every  other.  He  himself 
•went  to  Paris  as  Reviser  and  Corrector  of  the  press ;  and 
had  well  nigh  lost  his  life  in  the  service,  through  the 
opposition  of  the  French  Inquisitors.  The  work  was 
completed  in  England  under  his  supervision,  and  was  known 
as  the  Great  Bible,  "appointed  to  be  read  in  churches." 

In  1551,  under  King  Edward,  Coverdale  was  made  Bishop 
of  Exeter.  During  Mary's  reign  he  was  obliged  to  seek  re- 
fuge on  the  continent ;  but  on  the  accession  of  Elizabeth 
be  returned  to  England,  where  he  was  joyfully  received  by 
the  friends  of  the  Beformation.  He  would  now  have  re- 
gained his  honors,  but  for  his  conscientious  scruples  in  re- 
gard to  certain  church  ceremonies,  strenuously  insisted  on 
by  the  ruling  powers,  but  which,  in  his  view,  countenanced 
dangerous  popish  errors.  This  subject  will  be  more  par- 
ticularly noticed  hereafter. 

Even  the  rectory,  which  had  been  given  to  Coverdale 
as  a  provision  for  his  old  age,  was  at  length  taken  from 
him  for  his  steadfast  refusal  to  obey  the  Act  of  Uniformity. 
He  continued  to  preach,  however,  and  the  name  of  Father 
Coverdale  was  dear  to  the  common  people  as  that  of  a 
faithful,  honest  and  affectionate  teacher  of  the  way  of  sal- 
vation. He  died  in  honorable  poverty  May  26th,  1567, 
in  the  81st  year  of  his  age.  "  He  was  buried  in  the  Church 
of  St.  Bartholomew,  behind  the  Boyal  Exchange ;  and  his 
funeral  was  attended  by  multitudes,  who  reverenced  his 
memory  and  bewailed  his  Inss." 

His  writings  have  been  collected  and  published  by  the 
Parker  Society,  and  form  an  interesting  monument  of  his 
own  learning  and  piety,  and  of  the  spirit  of  the  age  in 
which  he  lived. 


CHAPTER  XIY. 


TAVERNER'S  BIBLE. 

Among  the  young  men  of  Oxford,  who  in  1526  were  im- 
mured in  Cardinal  College  cellar  for  reading  Tyndale's 
New  Testament,  was  one  by  the  name  of  Richard  Taver- 
ner.  He  was  especially  implicated,  as  having  been  engaged 
in  the  attempt  to  conceal  the  obnoxious  books  under  the 
floor  of  a  fellow-student's  room.  On  account,  however,  of 
his  skill  in  music,  he  was  soon  released  by  Wolsey,  who 
was  a  lover  of  all  elegant  accomplishments,  and  probably 
thought  it  a  pity  to  spoil  so  fine  a  voice  by  the  damp  air 
of  the  cellar.  He  then  devoted  himself  to  the  study  of 
law ;  and  was  admitted  to  practice  at  the  Inner  Temple. 

Though  not  distinguished  during  the  times  of  severe 
persecution  which  followed,  Taverner  seems  to  have  re- 
mained a  faithful  adherent  of  the  truth,  and  particularly 
of  the  cause  of  Bible  translation.  In  1534  he  became  at- 
tached to  the  court,  under  the  patronage  of  Crumwell,  and 
by  him  was  raised  to  an  office  of  some  responsibility  and 
honor.  It  was  while  he  was  still  occupying  this  post  that 
his  patron,  acting  on  his  now  ruling  idea  that  the  only  se- 
curity against  the  revival  and  triumph  of  the  Popish  party 
in  England  was  to  flood  the  country  with  Bibles,  urged 


334  THE    ENGLISH   BIBLE. 

Taverner,  wlio  was  an  expert  G-reek  scholar,  to  undertake 
a  revision  of  Matthew's  Bible,  of  which  he  was  desirous  to 
publish  a  new  edition.  The  result  was  the  work  known  as 
Taverner's  Bible  ;  which  was,  according  to  Bishop  Bale, 
"  neither  a  bare  revisal,  nor  yet  strictly  a  new  verSion,  but 
something  between  both."  His  dedication  to  the  King,  in 
which  he  explains  his  reasons  for  undertaking  the  work,  is 
an  interesting  indication  of  the  spirit  of  the  time  in  regard 
to  Bible  translation : 

"  Your  Grace  never  did  anything  more  acceptable  unto  (lod,  more  profit- 
able unto  the  advancement  of  true  Christianity,  more  displeasant  to  the  ene- 
mies of  the  same,  and  also  to  your  Grace's  enemies,  than  when  your  Majesty 
licensed  and  willed  the  most  sacred  Bible,  containing  the  unspotted  and 
lively  word  of  God,  to  bo  in  the  English  tongue  set  forth  to  his  Highness' 
subjects.  It  cannot  be  denied,  however  to  the  setting  forth  of  it  some  men 
have  neither  undiligently  nor  yet  unlearnedly  travailed,  that  some  faults 
have  escaped  their  hands.  But  it  is  a  work  of  so  great  difSculty  so  abso- 
lutely to  translate  the  whole  Bible  that  it  be  faultless,  I  fear  it  would  scarce 
be  done  of  one  or  two  persons,  but  rather  required  both  a  deeper  con- 
ferring of  many  learned  wits  together,  and  also  a  juster  time  and  longer  lei- 
sure ;  but  forasmuch  as  the  printers  hereof  were  very  desirous,  to  have  the 
Bible  come  forth  as  faultless  and  emendently  as  the  shortness  of  time 
for  the  recognizing  of  the  same  would  require,  they  desired  me,  for  default 
of  a  better  learned,  diligently  to  overlook  and  peruse  the  whole  copy ;  and 
in  case  I  should  find  any  notable  default  that  needed  correction,  to  amend  the 
same  according  to  the  true  exemplars,  which  thing  according  to  my  talent, 
I  have  gladly  done." 

The  work  was  published  with  King  Henry's  license,  in 
whose  reign  it  passed  through  several  editions.  It  con- 
tinued to  be  printed  occasionally  as  late  as  1551,  after 
which  there  seems  to  have  been  no  farther  demand  for  it, 
and  it  disappears  from  the  list  of  versions  printed  for  use 
among  the  people. 


CHAPTER  XV. 


CRANMER'S  BIBLE:   THE  ANGLICAN  CHURCH. 

The  name  of  Cranmer  has  already  been  frequently  men- 
tioned in  connexion  with  the  early  history  of  Bible  trans- 
lation in  England.  He  was  educated  at  Magdalen  college, 
Cambridge,  and  was  one  of  those  young  men  selected  by 
Wolsey,  for  their  superior  talents  and  scholarship,  to  adorn 
his  new  college  at  Oxford.  But  at  the  risk  of  seriously 
oifendiug  the  great  Cardinal,  Cranmer  declined  the  honor 
and  the  increased  emolument,  preferring  the  greater  quiet 
and  independence  of  his  Cambridge  home.  He  afterwards 
became  Divinity  Lecturer  in  Magdalen  College,  and  was 
there  held  in  the  highest  esteem  for  his  learning  and 
virtue. 

While  yet  a  student,  Cranmer,  like  so  many  other  edu- 
cated young  men  of  that  period,  was  led  by  his  own  spirit- 
ual wants  to  an  earnest  study  of  the  Scriptures  ;  and  from 
that  time,  the  written  word  of  God  was  the  object  of  his 
profoundest  veneration.  Being  appointed  by  his  College 
one  of  the  Examiners  of  candidates  for  degrees,  as  Batch- 
elors  and  Doctors  of  Divinity,  he  was  accustomed  to  make 
their  knowledge  of  the  Scriptures  a  test  of  admission  ;  and 
if  this  was  found  unsatisfactory,  to  turn  them  back,  with 


336  THE    ENGLISH    BIBLE. 

the  advice  to  spend  some  years  longer  in  becoming  ac- 
quainted with  the  book  "wherein  the  knowledge  of  God,  and 
the  grounds  of  divinity  lay."  The  Friars  were  particularly 
deficient  in  this  respect,  their  sole  training  being  in  the 
subtleties  of  the  schoolmen;  and  Cranmer's  strictness 
subjected  him  to  their  mortal  enmity.  "  Yet  some  of  the 
more  ingenuous,"  says  Strype,*  "  afterwards  rendered  him 
great  and  public  thanks  for  refusing  them ;  whereby,  being 
put  upon  a  study  of  God's  word,  they  attained  to  more 
sound  knowledge  in  religion." 

From  his  elevation  to  the  Primacy,  in  1533,  his  influ- 
ence was  steadily  directed  towards  the  object  of  securing 
to  the  nation  at  large,  the  free  use  of  the  Bible  in  English. 
His  earnest,  but  unsuccessful  efi"orts  to  enlist  the  Bishops 
in  the  work,  have  already  been  noticed ;  as  well  as  the 
generous  ardor  with  which  he  welcomed  Tyndale'a  Bible 
in  1537,  and  his  exultation  when  permission  was  at  length 
obtained  from  the  capricious  Henry  that  all  his  subjects, 
high  and  low,  rich  and  poor,  might  read  the  word  of  God. 

In  1538,  the  first  reprint  of  Tyndale's  whole  Bible  was 
commenced  in  Paris  and  finished  in  London,  under  the 
oversight  of  Coverdale.  In  1540,  another  was  published 
under  the  immediate  superintendence  of  Cranmer,  which, 
on  account  of  the  critical  comparison  of  the  translation 
with  the  Greek  and  Hebrew  text  which  it  exhibits,  takes 
rank  as  an  important  contribution  to  the  work  of  Bible 
translation.  This  is  the  work  known  as  Cranmer's  Bible. 
In  the  Old  Testament,  particularly,  the  rendering  is  often 
an  improvement  on  that  of  Tyndale ;  though  elsewhere,  it 
shows  the  influence  of  unreliable  guides  in  Hebrew  philo- 

*  Life  of  Cranmer. 


cranmer's  bible  :  the  anglican  church.      337 

logy.  Whether  the  changes  were  from  Cranraer  himself, 
or  from  scholars  employed  by  him,  is  not  known ;  but  his 
learning  justifies  the  supposition  that  they  came  from  his 
own  hand.  Its  great  blemish  is  the  frequent  introduction 
of  readings  from  the  Vulgate ;  though  these  are  distinguished 
by  being  enclosed  in  brackets,  and  printed  in  a  different 
type.  The  version  of  the  Psalms,  given  in  Cranmer's 
Bible,  is  the  one  still  retained  in  the  Book  of  Common 
Prayer  in  the  Church  of  England.*  The  Church  Psalter 
does  not,  however,  distinguish  the  additions  from  the  Vul- 
gate ;  in  the  fourteenth  Psalm,  for  example,  three  whole 
verses  are  there  inserted,  with  no  indication  that  they  do 
not  belong  to  the  Hebrew  test. 

The  Prologue  to  this  Bible,  written  by  Cranmer  him- 
self, is  a  most  earnest  appeal  to  the  laity  of  all  classes, 
to  improve  their  present  opportunities  of  becoming  ac- 
quainted with  the  Holy  Scriptures,  as  the  great  remedy 
for  all  the  evils  of  human  life.  Even  among  them  were 
still  to  be  found  many,  who  retained  the  prejudices  in  which 
they  had  been  trained  against  the  use  of  the  Bible  by  the 
laity,  and  who  refused  to  read  or  hear  the  Scripture  in 
the  vulgar  tongue. 

"  I  would  marvel  much,"  he  writes,  "  that  any  man  should  be  so  mad 
as  to  refuse,  in  darkness,  light ;  in  hunger,  food  ;  in  cold,  fire ;  •  .  .  savo 
that  I  consider  how  much  custom  and  usage  may  do.  So  that  if  there  were 
a  people,  as  some  write,  de  cymeriis,  which  never  saw  the  sun,  by  rea- 
Bon  that  they  be  situated  far  towards  the  north  pole,  and  be  inclosed  and 
overshadowed  with  high  mountains  ;  it  is  credible  and  like  enough,  that  if, 
by  the  power  and  will  of  God,  the  mountains  should  sink  down  and  give 
place,  so  that  the  sun  might  have  entrance  to  them,  at  first  some  of  them 
would  be  offended  therewith.  And  the  old  proverb  affirmeth,  that  after  til- 
lage of  com  was  first  found,  many  delighted  more  to  feed  of  mast  and  acorns, 

*  Anderson  claims  that  it  was  taken  from  Tyndale's  (Matthew's)  Bible ; 
but  erroneously,  as  any  one  may  convince  himself  by  a  slight  comparison. 


338  THE    ENGLISH    BIBLE. 

■wherewitli  they  had  been  accustomed,   than  to  eat  bread  made  of  good 
corn." 

After  quoting  at  large  from  St.  Chrysostom,  to  prove  that 
the  laity,  as  those  who  are  most  exposed  to  the  trials  and 
temptations  of  life,  being  '*  in  the  midst  of  the  sea  of 
worldly  wickedness,  standing  in  the  forefront  of  the  host, 
and  nighest  to  the  enemy,"  need  the  means  of  defence  and 
succor  ready  at  hand,  far  more  than  those  who  lead  a  life 
of  retirement  and  spiritual  meditation,  he  proceeds: 

"Now  if  I  should  in  like  manner  bring  forth  what  the  self-same  doctor 
speaketh  in  other  places,  and  what  other  doctors  and  writers  say  concerning 
the  same  purpose,  I  might  seem  to  you  to  write  another  Bible,  rather  than 
make  a  Preface  to  the  Bible.  Wherefore,  in  few  words  to  comprehend  the 
largeness  and  utility  of  the  Scriptures,  how  it  containeth  fruitful  instruction 
and  erudition  for  every  man ;  if  anything  be  necessary  to  be  learned,  of 
the  holy  Scriptures  we  may  learn  it ;  if  falsehood  shall  be  reproved,  thereof 
■we  may  gather  wherewithal ;  if  anything  to  be  corrected  and  amended,  if 
there  need  any  exhortation  or  con.solation,  of  the  Scriptures  we  may  well 
learn  it.  In  the  Scriptures  be  the  fat  pastures  of  the  soul — therein  is  no 
venomous  meat,  no  unwholesome  thing ;  they  be  the  very  dainty  and  pure 
feeding.  .  .  Here  all  maimer  of  persons — men  and  women,  young,  old,  learn- 
ed, unlearned,  rich,  poor,  priests,  laymen,  lords,  ladies,  oEBcers,  tenants,  and 
mean  men  ;  virgins,  wives,  widows,  lawyers,  merchants,  artificers,  husband- 
men, and  all  manner  of  persons,  of  what  estate  or  condition  soever  they  be — 
may  in  this  book  learn  all  things  what  they  ought  to  believe,  what  they 
ought  to  do,  and  what  they  should  not  do,  as  well  concerning  Alniighty 
God,  as  also  concerning  themselves,  and  all  other." 

These  were  wonderful  words  to  be  heard,  in  that  day, 
from  the  highest  dignitary  of  the  English  church.  The 
minute  specification  of  various  classes  and  conditions,  is 
not  without  important  meaning ;  and  recognizes  a  princi- 
ple far  in  advance  of  the  opinions  then  generally  current 
among  the  great.  The  good  Archbishop  seems  resolved, 
that  no  individual  shall  feel  himself  excluded  or  excused 
from  the  new-spread  feast,  for  lack  of  a  special  invitation. 
This  is  Cranmer's  true  glory,  his  fervent  love  for  the  in- 


cranmer's  bible  :  the  Anglican  church.       339 

spired  word,  and  his  unwearied  efforts  to  make  the  divine 
gift  common  alike  to  all.  Here  he  showed  himself  the 
true  Christian,  the  true  Protestant. 

It  is,  moreover,  greatly  to  his  honor,  that  his  anxiety  to 
strenghten  the  newly  established  order  of  things,  was 
allowed  to  affect  so  little  his  renderings  of  Scripture.  A 
few  ecclesiastical  terms,  which  unfortunately  Tyndale  had 
perpetuated,  in  contrariety  to  his  general  principles  of 
translation,  were  likewise  retained  by  Cranmer.  But  the 
word  "  church"  occurs  only  once  in  his  version,  and  then 
merely  as  the  designation  of  a  sacred  building,  (Acts 
19  :  37,)  for  which  also  he  had  the  authority  of  Tyndale 
and  Coverdale.  In  all  other  cases,  he  uniformly  renders 
ecdesia  by  the  noble  and  intelligible  word  "congrega- 
tion."* 

The  year  1542  furnished  an  index,  of  a  novel  character,  to 
the  unwearied  efforts  of  the  Popish  prelates  to  frustrate 
his  efforts  in  behalf  of  the  Bible  ;  namely,  an  order  from 
the  King  for  a  revision,  by  the  bishojjs,  of  the  authorized 
translation  of  the  New  Testament.  When  the  people 
were  destitute  of  a  Bible,  Cranmer  had  vainly  tried  to  en- 
list them  in  the  work  of  preparing  one ;  now,  when  the 
work  had  been  carried  through,  against  their  most  strenu- 
ous efforts,  they  were  ready  to  step  in  and  do  what  they 
could  to  mar  it.  Sorely  against  his  will,  the  Archbishop 
was  obliged  to  apportion  the  task  among  them ;  and  then 
followed  meeting  after  meeting  to  decide  on  the  plan  of 
execution.     At   the   sixth   meeting,    Gardiner  —  who,  no 

*  In  Bagster's  English  Hexapla,  Cranmer  is  incorrectly  represented  as 
giving  to  1  Tim.  4  :  14  the  strange  rendering  :  "  Laying  on  of  hands  by 
authority  of  the  priesthood."  In  the  original  edition  of  1640,  a  copy  of 
which  is  before  me,  it  stands  as  in  Tyndale  :  "  Laying  on  of  the  hands  of 
an  elder." 


340  THE    ENGLISH    BIBLE. 

doubt,  was  the  contriver  of  the  scheme — brought  in  a  list 
of  above  one  hundred  Latin  words,*  "  which  for  their  genu- 
ine and  native  meaning,  and  for  the  majesty  of  the  matter 
in  them  contained,"  he  desired  might  be  retained  untrans- 
lated, or  Englished  with  the  least  possible  alteration,  in  the 
new  revision.  This  design,  if  effected,  would  have  given 
the  people  a  Bible  in  name,  while  it  deprived  them  of  the 
substance.  "  Wanting,"  says  Fuller,  "  the  power  to  keep 
the  light  of  the  Word  from  shining,  he  sought,  out  of 
policy,  to  put  it  in  a  dark  lantern."  Thus  too,  according 
to  the  old  historian,  he  sought  "  to  teach  the  laity  their 
distance ;  who,  though  admitted  into  the  outer  court  of  com- 
mon matter,  were  yet  debarred  entrance  into  the  holy  of  ho- 
lies of  these  mysterious  expressions,  reserved  only  for  the 
understanding  of  the  high  priest  to  pierce  into  them.  More- 
over, this  made  Gardiner  not  only  tender,  but  fond  to  have 
these  words  continued  in  kind  without  translation,  because 
the  profit  of  the  Romish  church  was  deeply  in  some  of 
them  concerned.  Witness  the  word  '  penance,'  which,  ac- 
cording to  the  vulgar  sound,  contrary  to  the  original  sense 
thereof,  was  a  magazine  of  will-worship,  and  brought  in 
much  gain  to  the  priests,  who  were  desirous  to  keep  that 
word,  because  that  word  kept  them."  Cranmer,  having 
obtained  this  evidence  of  the  purpose  they  had  in  view, 
made  Henry  fully  acquainted  with  it ;  and  as  the  result, 
was  empowered  to  inform  the  Convocation,  that  "  it  was 
the  King's  will  and  pleasure"  that  the  examination  of  the 
entire  translation  of  the  Old  and  New  Testaments  should 
be  committed  to  the  Universities.  Thus  the  work  was 
rescued  from  the  hands  of  its  enemies  ;  but  it  does  not  ap- 
pear that  the  Universities  were  ever  troubled  with  it. 

*  Quoted  at  length  in  Fuller's  Church  History,  Vol.  II,  p.  108. 


CRANMEll's    bible:    THE    ANGLICAN    CHURCH.  341 

And  yet,  witli  all  this  zeal  for  faithful  vernacular  trans- 
lations, Crannier  only  half  understood  the  principles  of 
Protestantism.  With  one  hand  he  dispersed  Bibles,  with- 
out stint  or  restriction,  among  the  people  ;  with  the  other, 
he  laid  a  yoke  on  their  necks,  hardly  more  tolerable  than 
that  which  their  fathers  wore ;  for  it  equally  denied  the 
supremacy  of  the  individual  conscience.  The  Romish 
bishops  had  punished  dissent  from  their  church ;  and  this 
was  accounted  wrong,  because  it  was  the  church  of  Anti- 
christ. Protestant  bishops  punished  dissent  from  their 
church ;  and  this  was  right,  because  it  was  the  true  church 
of  Christ  !  It  is  amusing,  though  humiliating,  to  read  the 
records  furnished  by  the  admiring  Strype,  of  the  contests 
between  Cranmer  and  the  stout  Bishop  of  Winchester, 
during  the  reign  of  Edward  VI.  Gardiner  had  been  a  sad 
thorn  to  the  pious  Primate  in  the  previous  reign  ;  but  now 
the  latter  had  it  all  his  own  way,  and  he  resolved  to  reduce 
the  turbulent  prelate  to  conformity  with  the  true  faith. 
When  he  could  not  be  convinced  by  argument,  he  was  sent 
to  the  Fleet.  Being  "somewhat  straitly  handled,"  he 
complained  to  the  Lord  Protector  that  he  was  allowed  no 
friend  or  servant,  no  chaplain,  barber,  tailor  nor  physician  ; 
"  a  sign,"  says  the  sagacious  biographer,  "  that  he  gave 
them  high  provocation."     This  was  in  1547. 

After  a  three  years'  imprisonment,  "  it  was  now  thought 
time,"  as  is  quietly  remarked,  "  that  he  be  spoken  withal." 
Accordingly,  he  was  brought  up  before  the  King's  council, 
and  articles  of  submission  proposed  for  his  subscription, 
condemning  all  the  essential  doctrines  and  practices  of  Ro- 
manism, and  approving  whatever  had  been  done  during  the 
previous  and  present  reigns  for  their  suppression.     We 


342  THE   ENGLISH    BIBLE. 

cannot  but  have  some  respect  for  the  man  who,  with  liberty 
and  honor  on  one  side,*  and  disgrace  and  a  prison  on  the 
other,  could  maintain  with  such  steadfast  spirit  his  right 
to  his  own  opinions.  "After  a  great  deal  of  pains  and  pa- 
tience," on  the  part  of  the  Archbishop  and  his  fellow-com- 
missioners, maintained  unavailingly  through  two  and 
twenty  sessions,  the  refractory  bishop  was  condemned  to 
a  still  stricter  confinement,  in  a  meaner  prison,  denied  all 
intercourse  with  his  friends,  and  the  use  of  books,  pen, 
ink,  and  paper ;  "  that  he  may  not  write  his  detestable 
purposes,  but  be  sequestered  from  all  conferences,  and  from 
all  means  that  may  serve  him  to  practice  in  any  way." 
From  this  imprisonment,  he  was  not  released  till  the  ac- 
cession of  Mary ;  and  though  we  must  detest  the  fiendish 
cruelty  of  his  spirit,  we  cannot  much  wonder,  that  when 
his  turn  came  to  be  in  power,  "  he  sufficiently  wracked 
his  revenge  against  the  good  Archbishop,  and  the  true  re- 
ligion." 

Nor  was  such  severity  confined  to  Papists.  The  pious 
and  zealous  Hooper,  Bishop  elect  of  Gloucester,  fully  agreed 
with  Cranmer  as  to  doctrine  and  discipline ;  only  it  went 
against  his  conscience  to  wear  the  vestments  identified 
with  the  superstitious  and  idolatrous  rites  of  Popery. 
Arguments  proved  equally  fruitless  with  him,  as  with 
Gardiner ;  and  on  the  report  of  the  Archbishop,  "  that 
Hooper  could  not  be  brought  to  any  conformity,  but  rather 
persevered  in  his  obstinacy,  coveted  to  prescribe  orders 
and  necessary  laws  to  his  head,"  the  universal  panacea  was 
administered  by  coramitting  him  to  the  Fleet.  We  wish 
it    could   be  recorded,  that  conscience   in   this   instance 

*  Nothing  but  this  hypocritical  subscription  was  required,  as  the  condi- 
tion of  full  restoration  to  his  bishopric,  and  a  place  in  the  King's  council. 


cranmer's  bible  :  the  anglican  church.       343 

proved  as  unyielding  as  self-will  in  the  other.  But  after 
a  time  spent  in  prison,  Hooper  learned  to  appreciate  the 
arguments  of  his  brethren^  and  exchanged  his  uncomfort- 
able lodgings  in  the  Fleet,  for  the  bishopric  and  its  vest- 
ments. 

But  there  were  other  cases  which  more  nearly  touch 
our  sympathies,  because  infringing,  under  the  sacred  name 
of  the  Bible,  on  the  religious  liberties  of  the  common 
people.  We  are  told,  that  "  now  that  the  liberty  of  the 
Gospel  began  to  be  allowed,  (!)  divers  false  and  unsound 
opinions  began  to  be  vented  with  it."  The  Archbishop 
felt  it  incumbent  on  him  to  put  a  stop  to  these  disorders, 
by  conventing  several  "  heretics "  before  him,  and  com- 
pelling them  to  take  a  public  oath  of  recantation,  witli 
such  farther  penance  as  seemed  to  him  advisable.  One 
man,  for  maintaining  that  the  regenerate  could  not  sin, 
and  other  notions  of  like  character,  was  required — besides 
signing  an  abjuration,  and  a  promise  "  never  to  hold,  teach, 
or  believe  the  said  errors  or  damned  opinions  above  re- 
hearsed— to  procure  two  sureties  in  five  hundred  pounds 
(equal  at  least  to  twenty  thousand  dollars)  for  his  attend- 
ance the  Sunday  following  at  Paul's  Cross,  and  there  to 
stand  penitently  before  the  preacher,  all  the  time  of  ser- 
mon, with  a  faggot  on  his  shoulder."  Michael  Thombe,  a 
butcher,  was  eonvented,  for  holding  "  that  Christ  took  not 
the  .flesh  of  the  Virgin,  and  that  the  baptism  of  infants  is 
not  profitable,  because  it  goeth  before  faith ;  but,  "  by 
submission  and  penance,  he  escaped  !" 

There  was  another  class  of  offenders,  as  described  by 
Strype — "  some  that  took  the  liberty  of  meeting  together, 
in  certain  places,  and  there  to  propound  odd  questions, 
and  vent  dangerous  doctrines  and  opinions."     As  a  speci- 


344  THE    ENGLISH    BIBLE, 

men  of  these  disorderly  proceedings,  it  is  mentioned,  that 
"  a  number  of  persons,  a  sort  of  Anabaptists,  about  sixty, 
met  in  a  house  on  a  Sunday,  in  the  parish  of  Booking,  in 
Essex  ;  where  arose  among  them  a  great  dispute,  '  Whether 
it  were  necessary  to  stand  or  kneel,  bare-head  or  covered, 
at  prayers  ?'  and  they  concluded  the  ceremony  not  to  be 
material ;  but  that  the  heart  before  God  was  required,  and 
nothing  else.  Such  other  like  warm  disputes  there  were 
about  Scripture."  Similar  assemblies  were  likewise  held 
in  Kent.  "  These,"  says  Strype,  ''  were  looked  on  as  dan- 
gerous to  church  and  state."  Nine  of  these  from  Booking, 
"  being  cowherds,  clothiers,  and  such  like  mean  people," 
and  others  from  Kent,  having  been  arrested  and  brought 
before  the  council,  confessed  the  cause  of  their  assembly  to 
be,  "  for  to  talk  of  the  Scriptures."  They  also  admitted 
that  they  had  refused  the  communion  for  two  years.  Their 
grounds  for  so  doing  being  judged  erroneous  and  supersti- 
tious, "  five  of  them  were  committed  to  prison,  and  seven 
bound  in  recognizance  to  the  King  in  forty  pounds  each 
man." 

But  "  the  mild  Archbishop,"  as  he  is  called  ^ar  excel- 
lence^ could  not  always  satisfy  his  conscience  with  fines 
and  prisons.  An  ignorant  young  woman,  named  Joan  Bo- 
cher,  who  held  the  heresy  that  Christ,  being  sinless,  could 
not  have  partaken  of  the  flesh  of  the  Virgin,  who  was  con- 
ceived in  sin,  withstood  all  the  efforts  put  forth  for  her 
conversion.  The  Archbishop,  as  well  as  Ridley  and  Lat- 
imer, labored  long  and  earnestly  for  this  object ;  but  at 
length  gave  over  the  attempt,  and  she  was  condemned  to 
the  flames.  When  the  sentence  was  brought  by  Cranmer 
to  the  young  King  for  signature,  he  long  refused ;  and 
when  at  last  he  yielded,  weeping,  to  the  authority  and 


cranmer's  bible  :  the  Anglican  church.       345 

arguments  of  bis  venerated  instructor  in  religion,  it  was 
with  the  solemn  declaration,  "  If  there  is  wrong  in  this 
matter,  it  rests  wholly  on  your  hands  !"  In  the  year 
1551,  a  Dutchman  suffered  the  same  death,  by  Cranmer's 
authority,  for  denying  the  divinity  of  Christ. 

Such  were  the  measures  to  which  good  men  were  driven 
for  the  support  of  that  State  church,  which  has  been  glori- 
fied as  the  embodiment  of  the  English  Reformation.  But 
these  measures  never  grew  out  of  that  inward  divine  life 
which  the  Spirit  of  God,  through  God's  own  word,  had 
awakened  among  the  people  of  England.  They  were,  in- 
deed, the  legitimate  fruits  of  the  ecclesiastical  system,  which 
royal  despotism  had  forced  upon  that  noble  work  ;  or,  in 
Milton's  splendid  language,  "  the  verminous  and  polluted 
rags,  dropt  over-worn  from  the  toiling  shoulders  of  Time, 
deformedly  quilted  and  interlaced  with  the  entire,  the 
spotless,  and  undecaying  robe  of  truth."  The  persecuting 
spirit  which  so  sadly  defaces  the  history  of  English  Protest- 
antism, is  due  not  to  Christianity,  nor  even,  primarily,  to  the 
men  who  have  been  the  instruments  of  oppression.  It 
belonged  to  the  system  which  constituted  the  civil  ruler 
the  controller,  ex  officio^  of  man's  relations  to  God.  When 
non-conformity  to  a  certain  church  is  made  an  offence 
against  the  constitution  of  the  State,  it  must,  of  necessity, 
be  punished  by  the  civil  sword.  Nor  can  any  change  of 
organization,  nor  of  men,  nor  of  times,  effect  any  real 
alteration  in  the  working  of  this  system.  Catholic  Spain, 
Protestant  England,  Calvinistic  Geneva,  Puritan  New 
England,  Lutheran  Germany,  all  bear  witness  to  this 
assertion.  The  stake  and  the  gibbet  may,  indeed,  be  ban- 
ished by  the  advancing  light  of  Christian  civilization  ;  but 
other  forms  of  oppression,  suited  to  the  mildness  and  pro- 

15* 


346  THE    ENGLISH    BIBLE. 

prieties  of  the  age,  will  cootinue  to  attest,  that  a  State 
religion,  in  its  very  nature,  is  a  denial  of  the  supremacy 
of  conscience,  and  as  such,  is  and  must  be  an  Inquisition 
and  a  despotism. 

Cranmer,  in  his  efforts  to  consolidate  the  Anglican 
Church,  was  actuated,  no  doubt,  by  pious  and  patriotic 
motives.  To  concentrate  ecclesiastical  power  in  the  hands 
of  the  king  of  England,  was  his  expedient  to  secure  it 
from  reverting  to  the  Pope  of  Rome ;  as  to  make  the 
doctrines  of  Protestantism  the  State  religion  of  England, 
was  forever  to  exclude  the  teachers  of  Popery,  who  were 
also  the  sworn  enemies  of  the  Bible  for  the  people.  To 
make  sure  of  this  end,  and  that  no  loophole  of  access  might 
be  left  to  the  abettors  of  Romanism,  required  that  the  lines 
of  orthodoxy  should  be  sharply  defined ;  and  especially, 
that  no  inward  disagreement  should  cause  a  weak  and 
broken  front  to  be  presented  to  the  enemy.  Hence  Con- 
formity became  his  one  idea ;  carried  even  to  the  doting  and 
childish  exaggeration  of  requiring  unity  in  outward  forms 
and  ceremonies,  and  in  the  cut  and  color  of  garments,  no  less 
than  in  the  belief  of  the  essential  truths  of  Christianity. 

But  whatever  may  be  its  faults,  the  church  which  recog- 
nizes the  people's  right  to  the  unrestricted  use  of  the  Bible 
in  their  mother  tongue,  differs  from  one  which  denies  this, 
as  light  from  darkness.  If  it  promulgates  error,  it  also 
administers  the  antidote;  if  it  claims  a  tyranny  over  con- 
science, it  deprives  no  man  of  the  charter,  wherein  he  may 
read  his  inalienable  title  to  judge  for  himself  how  he  shall 
worship  God.  Accordingly,  we  find  that  under  the  inde- 
fatigable endeavors  of  Archbishop  Cranmer  and  his  suc- 
cessors to  enforce  "  uniformity  and  quietness  in  religion," 
the  spirit  of  independent  thought   increased  among  the 


CRANMElJs    bible:    THE    ANGELICAN    CHURCH.        347 

people,  aud  Puritanism  grew  rife  iu  the  very  bosom  of  the 
church. 

While,  therefore,  we  must  regret  the  mistaken  policy 
of  Cranmer,  which  did  so  much  to  entail  on  England  the 
burden  under  which  she  has  groaned  three  hundred  years, 
which  has  cost  so  much  of  her  best  blood,  aud  exiled  or 
disfranchised  so  many  of  her  most  loyal  children  ;  we  must 
still  remember  him  with  gratitude  as  one  of  the  earliest 
advocates  of  vernacular  translation,  and  especially  as 
that  one  who  first  obtained  from  the  civil  power  the  ad- 
mission of  the  Bible  into  the  public  service  of  religion, 
and  liberty  for  all,  without  respect  to  class  or  condition, 
to  read  it  for  themselves.  This  was  the  vital  point.  This 
granted,  and  the  enjoyment  of  that  religious  liberty  and 
equality  which  the  Bible  teaches,  was  but  a  question  of 
time  and  patience. 

The  reign  of  Edward  VI.,  during  which  Cranmer  wield- 
ed almost  unbounded  ecclesiastical  power,  is  a  period  illus- 
trious in  the  annals  of  the  Bible.  With  all  the  Primate's 
fondness  for  legislating  in  matters  of  religion,  he  wisely 
left  the  word  of  God  to  take  care  of  itself,  except  so  far  as 
to  give  his  warmest  encouragement  to  all  efforts  for  multi- 
plying aud  diffusing  it.  The  fifty  editions  of  Bibles  and 
New  Testaments  which  appeared  during  this  brief  reign, 
in  answer  to  the  spontaneous  popular  demand,  are  a  greater 
glory  to  Cranmer  than  if  they  had  all  been  issued  in  obe- 
dience to  his  authority. 

In  another  respect  also,  we  see  his  true  liberality  in  re- 
ference to  the  Scriptures.  Four  versions,  and  these  in 
editions  varying  more  or  less  among  themselves,  were  be- 
fore the  public,  and  one  of  these  was  his  own.  Yet  there 
is  no  trace,  that  his  vast  influence  as  Primate  was  used  to 


348  THE  ENGLISH  BIBLE. 

gain  for  this  any  preference  in  the  public  favor.  During 
these  six  and  a  half  years  there  were  published,  as  nearly 
as  can  be  ascertained,  of  Coverdale's  Bible,  two  of  the 
whole  Bible  and  two  of  the  New  Testament ;  of  Taver- 
ner's,  two ;  of  Cranmer's,  seven  of  the  whole  Bible,  and 
eight  of  the  New  Testament ;  of  Tyndale's,  five  of  the 
whole  Bible  (in  eight  distinct  issues,  commonly  reckoned 
as  separate  editions),  and  of  the  New  Testament  twenty- 
four.  Besides  these,  were  two  or  three  editions  of  the  latter 
published  with  Erasmus'  Latin  New  Testament  in  parallel 
columns.  It  is  interesting  to  see  from  this  comparison, 
that  Tyndale's  New  Testament  was  still  the  favorite  of 
the  common  mind  ;  while  the  change  in  the  character  of 
the  ruling  influences  is  marked  by  the  fact,  that  the  long- 
proscribed  name  of  the  translator  appeared  in  full  on  the 
title  page  of  at  least  fifteen  editions. 


CHAPTER    XVI. 


THE  KEIGN  OF  TERROR. 

Again  the  scene  was  changed.  A  stern  adherent  of  the 
Church  of  Eome  now  sat  on  the  throne  of  England,  in  place 
of  the  gentle  and  pious  Edward. 

It  is  not  strange  that  the  long  series  of  disappointments, 
mortifications,  and  sorrows,  which  had  consumed  the  youth 
and  early  womanhood  of  Mary,  should  have  tinged  her 
spirit  with  bitterness  and  gloom.  A  sadder  fate  few  have 
experienced.  Commencing  life  with  the  most  brilliant 
prospects,  accustomed  almost  in  infancy  to  the  pomp  and 
adulation  of  an  expectant  queen,  sought  in  marriage  by 
the  greatest  princes  of  Europe  ;  before  the  age  of  twenty- 
five  she  saw  the  marriage  of  which  she  was  born  declared  in- 
cestuous, her  illustrious  mother  ignominiously  supplanted, 
herself  disowned,  and  studiously  degraded  by  her  own 
father.  In  poverty  and  neglect,  often  in  jeopardy  of  her 
life  from  her  father's  jealousy  of  one  he  had  so  deeply  in- 
jured, she  wore  away  ten  weary  years.  With  the  sense  of 
personal  wrong,  was  mingled  indignation  and  horror  at  the 
sacrilegious  repudiation  of  the  ancient  faith,  so  intimately 
connected  with  it.  It  required  great  strength  and  elasticity 
of  nature,   such  as  Elizabeth  possessed,  or  great  Chris- 


350  THE    ENGLISH    BIBLE. 

tian  magnanimity,  to  come  unharmed  out  of  such  a  trial. 
Mary  had  neither.  Narrow  in  mind,  melancholic  in  tem- 
per, the  devotee  of  a  faith  which  nurtures  the  darker  pas- 
sions, the  fearful  tempest  of  life  had  but  withered  and 
chilled  her ;  and  she  came  to  the  throne  yet  young,  only 
thirty-six,  a  blighted  woman,  a  bigoted  and  morose  zealot. 
The  memory  of  the  humiliations  and  terrors  to  which  she 
had  been  subjected,  but  fed  the  fierce  flame  of  religious 
fanaticism,  and  her  power  as  Queen  was  valued  only  as 
the  instrument  to  avenge  herself  and  her  religion. 

Mary  entered  London  on  the  3d  of  August,  1553.  Her 
first  act  was  to  release  and  reinstate  "  her  bishops,"  as  she 
emphatically  styled  Gardiner,  Bonner,  and  Tunstal,  who 
emerged  from  their  six  years'  incarceration,  unsubdued  in 
spirit,  and  thirsting  for  revenge.  The  former,  who  pos- 
sessed in  an  eminent  degree  the  pride,  the*  talent,  and  the 
craft  which  characterize  the  higher  class  of  the  Romish 
priesthood,  was  made  Lord  Chancellor ;  Bonner,  a  fero- 
cious bully,  not  above  playing  the  hypocrite  when  occasion 
ofi"ered,  and  insatiable  in  his  thirst  for  blood,  became  one 
of  Mary's  most  influential  counsellors,  and  her  chief  in- 
quisitor. But  few  days  were  sufi'ered  to  elapse  after  Ed- 
ward's funeral,  when  the  Queen  re-inaugurated  the  reign 
of  Obscurantism,  that  twin  sister  of  Popery,  by  an  "  Inhi- 
bition "  against  reading  or  teaching  any  Scriptures  in  the 
churches,  and  printing  any  books.  By  the  15th  of  Sep- 
tember, Cranmer,  Ridley,  Latimer,  Hooper,  Bradford,  and 
other  distinguished  Reformers,  were  shut  up  in  the  Tower, 
while  John  Rogers  was  made  prisoner  in  his  own  house, 
and  forbidden  to  speak  to  any  person  out  of  his  own  family. 
In  the  Parliament  which  met  in  October,  Cranmer  was  at- 
tainted of  high  treason  *,  and  a  bill  was  passed  re-afl[irming 


THE   REIGN   OF   TERROR.  351 

Henry's  marriage  with  Katherine,  tlie  preamble  to  wliich 
recognized  the  late  Archbishop  as  the  sole  instigator  of 
the  divorce.  Had  this  been  true,  it  would  be  hard  to 
blame  Mary  for  singling  him  out  as  a  special  object  of 
resentment.  But  both  Bonner  and  Gardiner  had  been 
zealous  agents  in  the  divorce,  long  before  Cranmer  became 
an  actor  in  it  and  the  latter  was  a  member  with  Cranmer 
of  the  commission  which  pronounced  the  marriage  with 
Katherine  unlawful.  Both  of  them  had  also,  with  all 
show  of  cordiality,  acknowledged  the  King's  supremacy. 
Nay,  Mary  herself  had  conceded  both  points,  for  the  sake 
of  regaining  position  and  influence  at  court.  Her  servile 
letter  to  her  father  on  the  death  of  Anne  Boleyn,  and  the 
yet  more  servile  articles  which  she  consented  to  subscribe, 
abjuring  her  religion  and  with  her  own  hand  endorsing  the 
foul  stigma  which  had  been  cast  upon  her  birth,*  should 
have  forever  prevented  her  from  making  the  like  acts 
grounds  of  accusation  against  others.  But  all  this  shows 
that  her  conduct  was  governed  not  so  much  by  personal  or 
political,  as  by  religious  motives.  Gardiner  was  a  true  Pa- 
pist, and  this  covered  all  his  offences;  Cranmer  was  a 
zealous  Protestant,  and  this  was  a  crime  which  cancelled 
all  obligations.  For  it  was  Cranmer's  intercession  which 
had  saved  her  from  the  Tower,  and  from  a  bloody  death  at 
her  father's  hands ;  and  he  had  incurred  the  hatred  of  the 
powerful  Northumberland  by  his  earnest  opposition,  only 
relinquished  upon  Edward's  dying  entreaties,  to  the  exclu- 
sion of  Mary  from   the   succession. 

Nor  did  any  execution  take  place  on  the  charge  of  trea- 
son. A  year  and  a  half  were  the  accused  reserved  in  prison, 
till  Cardinal  Pole  had  effected  a  formal  reconciliation  be- 

*  Burnet,  Vol.  I,  p.  154. 


352  THE    ENGLISH    BIBLE. 

tween  the  apostate  kiogdom  and  Holy  Mother  Church,  by 
which  the  Pope  resumed  all  his  ancient  dominion  over 
England,  and  the  doctrines  of  Rome  became  once  more  the 
established  faith.  A  stillness,  presaging  the  bursting  of 
the  storm,  held  the  nation  for  a  time  in  suspense  and 
fear. 

Meanwhile,  all  foreigners  attached  to  the  reformed 
principles,  great  numbers  of  whom  had,  during  the  reign 
of  Edward,  fled  from  persecution  in  their  own  countries 
into  England,  were  warned  to  depart  without  delay.  In 
their  train,  disguised  as  servants,  and  by  other  opportuni- 
ties, a  large  body  of  English  Protestants  contrived  to 
elude  the  vigilance  of  government,  and  escaped  to  the 
continent.  Not  less  than  eight  hundred  or  a  thousand 
learned  men,  besides  great  numbers  in  other  conditions, 
are  estimated  to  have  become  exiles  during  this  short 
reign. 

At  length,  on  the  21st  of  November,  1554,  Cardinal 
Pole  arrived  in  England  as  Papal  Legate,  and  was  received 
with  all  the  pomp  and  reverence  due  to  the  ambassador 
plenipotentiary  of  his  Holiness.  On  the  30th  of  the  same 
month,  he  performed  the  ceremony  of  reconciling  Parlia- 
ment, as  the  highest  civil  assembly  of  the  realm  ;  on  the 
6th  of  December  the  same  was  done  in  the  Convocation,  the 
highest  assembly  of  the  clergy.  This  was  followed  by 
commissions,  issued  by  the  Cardinal  to  Winchester  and 
other  bishops,  for  trying  heretics.  It  was  then  that  the 
pent  up  flames  of  persecution  burst  forth  with  unexampled 
fury.  The  alacrity  of  the  commissioned  prelates  to  dis- 
charge their  bloody  office,  shows  with  what  impatience  they 
had  waited  for  the  appointed  hour.  First,  the  most  emi- 
nent of  the  Reformers,  those  who  were  regarded  as  leaders 


THE    REIGN    OF    TERROR.  353 

of  the  host,  were  condemned  and  executed ;  then  Attention 
was  turned  to  humbler  victims.  The  whole  country  was 
placed  under  the  most  odious  system  of  espionage.  Jus- 
tices of  the  Peace  in  the  several  counties  were  formed  into 
geeret  vigilance  committees,  who  were  directed  to  lay  out 
their  shires  into  districts,  and  to  employ  spies  in  every 
parish;  and  they  were  to  meet  monthly  to  receive 
the  information  thus  gathered,  to  examine  such  as  were 
accused,  and  make  report  to  head-quarters.  By  these 
thorough  measures  it  was  intended  utterly  to  root  out  and 
extirpate  heresy  from  the  land.  The  Queen,  especially 
after  her  marriage  with  that  cold  hearted  bigot  Phillip  II, 
urged  on  these  proceedings  against  her  innocent  subjects 
with  unrelenting  fury.  Even  the  hope  of  becoming  a 
mother  but  added  fierceness  to  her  cruelty ;  and  she  de- 
clared that  unless  her  mind  were  quieted  by  the  death  of 
every  heretic  then  in  the  prisons,  "  even  to  the  last  one^'' 
she  could  not  hope  to  pass  the  approaching  crisis  with 
safety.*  Bonner  himself  was  then  too  slow  for  her  impa- 
tience. 

It  was  a  terrific  period ;  and,  as  in  all  similar  trials, 
"the  love  of  many  waxed  cold,"  and  multitudes  sought  to 
make  the  impossible  compromise  between  outward  assent  to 
what  they  disbelieved,  and  inward  allegiance  to  the  truth. 
But  there  were  also  many  who  chose  death  rather  than 
deny  Christ;  and  their  example  did  far  more  to  under- 
mine Popery  in  the  hearts  of  the  people,  than  Cranmer's 
church  had  ever  accomplished  with  its  carefully  elaborated 
Articles,  and  its  gentle  persuasives  of  fines  and  the  Fleet. 
The  faith  of  these  steadfast  martyrs  was  an  argument 
which  came  not  in  word  alone,  but  in  power.  It  told  of 
*  Strype's  Cranmer,  Vol.  1,  p.  528. 


354  THE    ENGLISH    BIBLE. 

an  inward  life  vrhicb  could  overmaster  fear  and  pain,  which, 
in  the  midst  of  bodily  torture,  could  impart  a  divine  joy 
such  as  earthly  prosperity  could  never  give,  and  even  in 
the  dying  agony  could  inspire  a  prayer  of  forgiveness  and 
love  for  the  persecutor. 

From  February  1555,  to  November  1558,  a  period  of 
less  than  four  years,  there  perished  in  prison,  by  torture, 
and  at  the  stake,  nearly  four  hundred  persons,  a  large 
number  of  whom  were  in  the  flower  of  youth.  Of  these 
two  hundred  and  eighty-eight  perished  at  the  stake,  many 
of  them  under  circumstances  of  peculiar  cruelty.  As  if 
the  spectacle  of  a  single  human  being,  shrivelling  in  the 
flames  could  not  satisfy  the  cannibal  fury  of  their  persecu- 
tors, it  became  the  custom  to  burn  them  in  companies  of 
from  three  to  ten  or  more.  At  Colchester  five  men  and 
five  women  were  burned  in  one  day,  six  in  the  morning  and 
four  in  the  afternoon.  At  Lewis,  in  Kent,  six  men  and 
four  women  perished  together.  At  Bow,  near  London,  was 
witnessed,  June  27th,  1556,  the  horrible  spectacle  of 
thirteen  human  beings,  eleven  men  and  two  women,  con- 
sumed in  one  fire.  They  sufi'ered,  not  even  charged  with 
any  off"ence  against  morality  or  the  civil  law  ;  but  simply 
because  they  could  not  conform  their  consciences  to  the 
doctrines  and  observances  of  the  Queen's  religion. 

Such  a  time  was  needed,  also,  to  show  what  the  word 
of  God  had  already  done  for  England.  After  the  first 
paralyzing  shock  of  terror,  the  work  which  had  been  pro- 
r-ressing  for  thirty  years,  manifested  itself  with  increasing 
power;  till  at  length  the  demonstrations  of  popular  feel- 
ing, though  free  from  every  trace  of  violence  or  disorder, 
alarmed  the  government  into  comparative  moderation. 
On  the  occasion  last  mentioned,  twenty  thousand  persons 


THE    REIGN    OF    TERROR.  355 

■were  estimated  to  have  been  present,  "whose  ends  generally 
iu  coming  there,  and  to  such  like  executions,"  says  Strype, 
"  were  to  strengthen  themselves  in  the  profession  of  the 
Gospel,  and  to  exhort  and  comfort  those  who  were  to  die." 
A  single  bystander  having  uttered,  in  the  fullness  of  his 
heart,  a  brief  ejaculation  in  behalf  of  the  sufferers,  a  res- 
ponsive Amen  burst  from  the  assembled  multitude  with  the 
sound  of  thunder.*  But  the  infatuated  Queen  needed 
many  such  lessons  before  she  learned  to  respect  the  awful 
voice  of  popular  conviction. 

The  persecutions  of  the  year  1558  again  brouglit  out  to 
the  light  those  secret  societies  of  believers,  or  Congrega- 
tions, as  they  called  themselves,  which  have  been  already 
mentioned  in  the  account  of  Frith,  and  elsewhere  in  this 
history,  as  the  successors  of  the  Lollards.  Several  of 
these  now  existed  in  Loudon  ;  and  from  the  number  of  lo- 
calities specified  where  they  were  accustomed  to  assemble, 
it  appears  that  they  had  increased  rather  than  diminished. 
Whether  they  had  been  known  during  the  administration 
of  Craumer  is  uncertain  ;  but  as  they  seem  to  have  pre- 
served their  separate  ^organization,  differing  in  important 
respects  from  the  State  Church,  it  is  most  probable  that 
they  had  continued  to  assemble,  during  that  period,  with 
their  wonted  silence  and  secrecy.  So  far  as  we  can  judge, 
they  were  simply  companies,  (or,  as  we  should  now  call 
them,  churches)  of  believers,  who  met  statedly  for  the  wor- 
ship of  God  and  for  the  celebration  of  the  Lord's  Supper,  and 
had  no  officers  but  a  Pastor  and  Deacons  chosen  by  them- 
selves. The  congregation  which  assembled  iu  Bow  Lane, 
is  known  to  have  existed  without  interruption  twenty-five 
years,  and  was  probably  the  parent  of  all  the  rest.  They 
*  Anderson,  Vol.  II,  p.  264. 


356  THE    ENGLISH    BTELE. 

had  not  intermitted  their  meetings  during  Mary's  bloody 
reign,  and  had  enjoyed  through  this  period  the  labors  of  a 
succession  of  godly  and  able  pastors.  These  had  been 
compelled,  one  after  another,  to  take  refuge  in  flight ;  but 
the  members,  as  a  body,  had  thus  far  escaped  detection. 

A  tone  of  piety,  beautifully  primitive  and  Scriptural, 
characterized  these  quiet,  humble  companies  of  Christians. 
They  seem  never  to  have  been  disturbed  by  those  hair- 
splitting disputes  over  free-will  and  predestination,  in  -which 
the  metaphysical  tendencies  of  some  of  the  leading  reform- 
ers had  embroiled  Protestantism ;  and  which,  in  the  ear- 
lier days  of  the  Marian  persecution,  had  made  even  the 
prisons  of  the  faithful  reecho  with  the  brawls  of  fiery  con- 
troversy, and  compelled  the  jailers  to  secure  a  decent 
peace,  by  separating  brother  from  brother.*  These  disci- 
ples seem,  preeminently,  to  have  "  kept  the  unity  of  the 
spirit  in  the  bond  of  peace."  Holding  fast  those  grand 
truths  of  revelation  which  pertain  to  the  soul's  salvation, 
it  was  their  simple  aim  to  incorporate  them  as  living  ener- 
gies in  their  hearts,  and  to  manifest  that  inward  power  by 
lives  of  holiness  and  love.  Such  had  been  their  character 
from  their  first  beginnings  in  the  days  of  WicklifiFe. 

Bonner's  suspicious  eye  had  been  for  some  time  directed  to 
the  gatherings  of  these  inoffensive  people ;  and  his  spies, 
under  the  guise  of  brethren,  had  been  busily  engaged  in 
seeking  information  to  be  used  against  them.  At  length, 
one  Sabbath  morning — December  12th,  1558 — as  they 
were  about  assembling  for  divine  worship  at  Islington, 
their  pastor,  Mr.  John  Rough,  and  one  of  their  deacons, 
Cuthbert  Symson,  a  rich  and  worthy  citizen  of  London, 
were  there  apprehended  by  the  Captain  of  the  Queen's 
*  Strype's  Cranmer,  Book  iii.,  ch.  xiv. 


THE    REIGN    OF    TERROR.  357 

Guard,  and  taken  immediately  before  the  Privy  Council. 
Three  (^ys  after,  they  were  handed  over  to  the  tender 
mercies  of  Bonner.  During  his  trial  before  this  brutal 
prelate,  Mr.  Rough  alluded  to  a  visit  which  he  had  once 
made  to  Rome,  and  the  abominations  he  had  there  wit- 
nessed. This  so  infuriated  Bonner,  that  he  flew  upon  him 
like  a  wild  beast,  and  actually  tore  out  a  part  of  his  beard 
by  the  roots  !  Two  days  before  he  suffered,  he  addressed 
the  bereaved  flock  of  which  he  had  been  so  faithful  a  shep- 
herd, in  a  letter  which  breathed  the  spirit  of  the  apostolic 
age.  Like  those  of  Tyndale  and  Frith,  this  beautiful 
epistle  tells  us,  in  every  sentence,  that  the  Bible  was  the 
fountain  from  which  his  life  drew  its  springs. 

Mr.  Symson  was  reserved  three  months  longer  in  prison, 
the  object  being  to  force  from  him  the  names  of  his  fellow- 
disciples,  of  which  he  had  the  list.  Three  times  in  one 
day  was  he  subjected  to  torture ;  but  no  agonies  could 
tempt  him  to  betray  his  brethren.  Bonner  himself  con- 
fessed before  the  Consistory  that  he  was  baflSed,  and  that 
there  was  something  in  this  man's  spirit  which  he  could 
not  understand.  "  Ye  see  this  man,"  said  he,  "  what  a 
personable  man  he  is.  And  furthermore,  concerning  his 
patience,  I  say  unto  you  that  if  he  were  not  a  heretic,  he 
is  a  man  of  the  greatest  patience  that  ever  yet  came  before 
me ;  for  I  tell  you  he  hath  been  thrice  racked  in  one  day 
in  the  Tower.  Also  in  my  house  he  hath  felt  some  sor- 
row;  and  yet  I  never  saw  his  patience  broken."  On  the 
28th  of  March,  this  heroic  man  was  burnt  at  Smithfield, 
in  company  with  two  of  his  brethren. 

The  place  of  their  pastor  was  immediately  supplied  by 
the  not  less  holy  and  intrepid  Thomas  Bentham.  There 
was  need  of  such  a  leader  ;  for  the  persecution  now  grew 


358  THE    ENGLISH    BIBLE. 

Lot.  Less  than  a  month  after  the  death  of  Cuthbert  Sym- 
son,  about  forty  of  their  number,  men  and  women,  had  as- 
sembled for  worship  near  Islington.  With  their  Bibles 
in  their  hands,  they  were  "occupied  in  the  meditation  of 
God's  holy  word,"  when  they  were  surprised  by  a  constable 
and  his  posse,  who  succeeded  in  arresting  twenty-two  of 
them.  They  were  immediately  imprisoned  at  Newgate, 
and  there  lay  seven  weeks  without  being  once  called  up 
for  examination.  Two  died  in  prison  ;  of  the  remaining 
twenty,  thirteen  were  condemned  on  the  24th  of  June — a 
month  memorable  in  the  history  of  English  martyrdom — 
to  perish  at  the  stake.  The  rest  barely  escaped  with  life. 
Seven  of  the  condemned  were  to  be  burned  at  Smithfield. 
Fearful  of  the  demonstrations  whicb,  had  been  witnessed 
on  former  occasions  of  this  character,  Philip  and  Mary 
took  the  precaution  of  issuing  a  proclamation,  to  be  read 
first  at  Newgate  and  afterwards  at  the  stake,  charging  and 
commanding,  that  "  no  man  should  either  pray  for,  or 
speak  to  the  condemned,  or  once  say,  '  God  help  them  !' " 
But  it  needed  something  more  than  royal  proclamations  to 
repress  the  mighty  emotion  now  swelling  in  the  great  pop- 
ular heart.  At  the  appointed  hour,  a  vast  multitude  stood 
awaiting  the  arrival  of  the  martyrs  at  Smithfield.  Sway- 
ing forward  at  their  approach,  with  a  quiet  but  irresistible 
movement,  they  surrounded  the  prisoners,  while  the  bill- 
men  and  ofiicers  were  borne  off  like  chaff  on  the  wave,  so 
that  they  could  not  even  come  near  their  charge.  Then 
was  disclosed  the  cause  of  this  strange  proceeding.  In  the 
bosom  of  that  dense  crowd  were  hid  the  "  congregation" 
and  its  pastor,  who  were  now  seen  exchanging  with  their 
brethren  farewell  embraces,  and  words  of  encouragement 
and  affection.     Then  they  fell  off  quietly,  and  allowed  the 


THE    REIGN    OF    TERROR.  359 

oflBcers  to  resume  their  places.  The  royal  proclamation, 
enjoining  silence,  was  now  read.  But  on  seeing  the  fire 
kindled,  Mr.  Bentham,  turning  to  the  multitude,  exclaim- 
ed :  "  We  know  that  they  are  the  people  of  God,  and  there- 
fore we  cannot  choose  but  wish  well  to  them,  and  say,  God 
strengthen  them  !"  Then  in  a  still  louder  voice,  he  added, 
"  Almighty  God,  for  Chrisfs  sake,  strengthen  them .'" 
Again  that  deep  "  amen  !  amen  !"  rose  on  the  air  like  the 
sound  of  many  waters,  and  gave  solemn  pledge,  in  the  face 
of  earth  and  heaven,  that  the  heart  and  conscience  of  Eng- 
land must  and  would  be  free. 

But  it  is  time  we  turn  to  the  direct  history  of  the  Eng- 
lish Bible  during  this  bloody  reign. 

It  is  not  a  little  singular,  that  during  these  five  and  a 
half  years,  there  seems  to  have  been  no  direct  legislation 
against  the  use  of  the  Scriptures,  beyond  the  proclamation 
issued  by  Mary  on  her  accession.  That  the  Queen  would 
gladly  have  followed,  in  this  respect,  in  her  father's  early 
.steps,  no  one  can  doubt.  That  she  refrained,  is  a  telling 
symptom  of  the  state  of  public  opinion.  But  there  were 
indirect  methods  of  securing  the  same  object ;  and  there 
is  sufl&cient  evidence  that  Bibles  were  seized  and  burned, 
and  their  readers  severely  punished.  In  1555,  a  second 
proclamation  forbade  the  importation  and  use  of  all  or 
any  of  the  works  of  certain  authors — thirty-five  in  number 
— whose  names  are  therein  specified.  Among  the  twelve 
English  authors  on  the  list,  are  Tyndale,  Coverdale,  and 
Cranmer ;  and  though  their  translations  of  the  Bible  are 
not  mentioned  by  name,  we  may  be  sure  that  they  were 
not  only  included  under  the  action  of  this  decree,  but  were 
the  special  occasion  of  it.  That  it  signally  failed  of 
the  desired  end,  we  learn  from   the   tenor  of  the  third 


360  THE    ENGLISH    BIBLE. 

proclamation  in  1558,  whicli  required  all  "  wicked  and 
seditious  books,"  to  be  delivered  up  on  pain  of  immediate 
death,  by  martial  law  !  The  history  now  to  follow,  fur- 
nishes the  key  to  this  last  measure,  which  bears  upon  its 
face  the  evidence  of  reckless  desperation.  Not  only  were 
the  previously  existing  versions  still  read  in  secret  in  every 
part  of  England,  but  a  new  one — in  some  respects  more 
formidable  than  either  of  its  predecessors — was  added  to 
the  number,  several  months  before  the  death  of  the  unhappy 
Queen.  It  is  of  this  version  that  a  brief  account  will  now 
be  given. 


CHAPTER  XVII. 


THE  GENEVAN  BIBLE. 

A  CONSIDERABLE  body  of  the  English  exiles  had  estab- 
lished themselves  at  Geneva  in  Switzerland,  then,  as  ever 
since,  a  city  eminent  for  theological  learning.  The  Eng- 
lish church  at  Geneva  is  said  to  have  numbered  several 
hundred  members,  among  whom  were  many  distinguished 
scholars  and  preachers.  Shut  up  together  in  this  city  of 
letters,  and  with  few  active  duties  to  occupy  their  time, 
it  is  not  strange  to  find  them  busy  in  devising  plans  for 
benefitting  their  beloved  native  land.  It  was,  indeed,  a 
time  of  general  intellectual  activity  among  the -learned 
fugitives  scattered  through  various  parts  of  Protestant 
Europe  ;  and  many  excellent  works,  the  fruit  of  their  con- 
strain ed  leisure,  were  sent  over  to  England  to  supply  in 
some  measure,  by  the  silent  labors  of  the  pen,  the  voice  of 
the  living  teacher. 

In  Geneva,  this  activity  very  naturally  directed  itself 
towards  an  improved  translation  of  the  Scriptures.  Such 
an  attempt  was  fully  in  accordance  with  the  spirit  of  the 
age,  which  had  already  given  birth  to  independent  ver- 
sions and  repeated  revisions  of  the  English   Scriptures  ; 

and  now  demanded  the  perfecting  of  this  great  work.     In 

16 


362  THE    ENGLISH   BIBLE. 

this  respect,  the  undertaking  presents  a  wide  contrast  to 
that  of  Tyndale,  and  exhibits  in  a  striking  light  the 
changes  eflfected  in  little  more  than  a  quarter  of  a  cen- 
tury through  the  labors  of  that  great  man.  What  Ander- 
son well  remarks  of  the  version  of  Coverdale,  may  with 
still  more  propriety  be  applied  to  this,  and  to  all  subse- 
quent attempts  in  the  same  field :  "  Their  translations 
were  the  effect  of  the  times  ;  the  times  themselves  were  the 
effect  of  Tyndale' s?''  This  general  tendency  could  not 
fail  to  receive  a  powerful  impulse  in  Geneva,  where,  under 
the  leadership  of  Calvin  and  Beza,  sacred  learning  was 
cultivated  with  an  ardor  and  success,  far  in  advance  of 
what  was  witnessed  in  any  other  portion  of  Christendom. 
It  is  not  unlikely,  from  the  circumstances,  that  the  first 
suggestion  of  the  new  translation  came  from  Calvin  him- 
self. Among  these  is  the  fact  that  his  brother-in-law, 
William  Whittingham,  as  seems  to  be  now  conceded,  was 
the  translator  of  the  New  Testament,  But  whatever  its 
source,  the  proposition  awoke  an  instant  enthusiasm  among 
the  whole  body  of  exiles;  and  the  lay  members  of  the 
church  encouraged  the  projectors  not  only  with  their  sym- 
pathy, but  with  offers  of  all  the  pecuniary  assistance  needed 
to  carry  it  through  successfully.  Among  the  most  for- 
ward in  this  good  work  was  John  Bodleigh,  father  of 
the  founder  of  the  celebrated  Bodleian  Library,  a  man  of 
wealth  and  noble  spirit,  who,  on  the  completion  of  the  ver- 
sion, took  upon  himself  the  chief  cost  of  its  publication.* 

The  New  Testament  was  first  translated,  and  was  pub- 
lished in  1557.  The  ability  with  which  it  was  executed 
fully  justified   the   undertaking.      Every  page  exhibited 

*  Anderson,  vol.  I.,  p.  322. 


THE    GENEVAN    BIBLE.  363 

evidences  of  the  advance  of  Christian  scholarship  since  the 
appearance  of  the  previous  versions.  In  the  Address  to 
the  Keader,  the  translator  refers  to  the  peculiar  advan- 
tages afforded  by  his  residence  and  relations  in  Geneva ; 
"  being,"  he  says,  "  moved  with  zeal,  counselled  by  the 
godly,  and  drawn  by  occasion,  both  of  the  place  where  God 
hath  appointed  us  to  dwell,  and  also  of  the  store  of  heaven- 
ly learning  and  judgment  which  so  abouudeth  in  this  city 
of  Geneva,  that  justly  it  may  be  called  the  patron  and 
mirror  of  true  religion  and  godliness."  The  utmost 
thoroughness  was  aimed  at  in  the  work.  Not  only  was 
the  translation  made  directly  from  the  Greek,  aided  by 
comparison  with  versions  in  other  languages,  but  the  Greek 
text  itself  (as  published  by  Erasmus)  was  revised  by 
manuscripts  which  had  been  collected  by  the  scholars  of 
Geneva.  When  it  was  completed,  Calvin  expressed  his 
interest  in  the  work  by  prefixing  to  it  an  introduction, 
which  he  calls  :  '  The  Epistle  declaring  that  Christ  is  the 
end  of  the  Law.'  It  sketches  briefly  and  beautifully  the 
progressive  steps  by  which  the  need  of  a  Mediator  and  Re- 
deemer was  made  known,  and  the  minds  of  men  taught  to 
look  forward  to  him  ;  till  at  length,  in  the  fulness  of  time 
he  appeared,  and  by  his  miracles,  his  teachings,  his  death 
and  ascension,  proved  himself  to  be  the  long  expected  hope 
of  the  world, — to  which  also  agreed  the  witness  of  inspired 
men,  of  angels,  and  of  God  himself.  The  divinely  authen- 
ticated history  of  these  transactions  is  contained  in  the 
books  of  the  New  Testament,  which  embodies  also  the 
teachings  of  inspired  apostles  as  to  the  application  to  be 
made  of  them  for  securing  our  salvation. 

"  All  these  things  are  published,   declared,  ■written,  and  sealed  to  us  in 
this  Testament,  by  the  which  Je^us  Christ  makes  us  his  heirs  in  the  king- 


364  THE    ENGLISH    BIBLE. 

dom  of  God  his  Father,  and  deelareth  unto  us  his  will,  as  he  that  maketh 
his  testament  to  bis  heirs  to  be  put  in  execution.  Now  we  are  all  called  to 
this  inheritance,  without  putting  any  manner  of  difference  either  between 
man  or  woman,  small  or  great,  servant  or  lord,  master  or  scholar,  clergy 
or  laity,  Hebrew,  Greek,  French,  or  Latin,  none  of  them  is  refused,  if  that 
by  assured  confidence  he  embraceth  that  which  is  sent  unto  him  ;  briefly, 
whosoever  shall  acknowledge  Jesus  Christ  such  as  he  is  ordained  of  the 
Father.  Therefore,"  he  continues,  "  shall  we  that  bear  the  name  of  Chris- 
tians suffer  this  Testament  to  be  taken  from  us,  or  else  to  be  hid  or  cor- 
rupted, which  so  justly  is  ours,  and  without  the  which  we  can  pretend  to  no 
title  to  the  kingdom  of  God,  without  the  which  we  know  not  the  excellent 
graces  and  promises  which  Jesus  Christ  hath  declared  towards  us,  neither 
the  glory  and  blessedness  which  he  hath  prepared  for  us  1"  .  ..."  0 
Christians,  understand  now  and  learn  this  point ;  for  doubtless  the  ignorant 
shall  perish  in  his  ignorance,  and  the  blind  following  another  blind  shall 
fall  with  him  into  the  ditch.  There  is  but  one  way  to  life  and  salvation, 
that  is,  faith  in  the  assurance  of  God's  promises,  which  we  cannot  have 
without  the  Gospel."  "  AVhat  thing  might  there  be  then  that  could  una- 
quaint  us  and  drive  us  back  from  this  Gospel  7  Shall  injuries,  evil  sayings, 
rebukes,  loss  of  worldly  honors  ?  .  .  .  .  Shall  banishment,  proclamations 
of  attaint,  loss  of  lands  and  goods  1  .  .  .  .  Shall  aflBictions,  prisons,  rack- 
ing?, torments,  make  us  shrink  from  this  Gospel  ?  We  learn  by  Jesus 
Christ  that  this  is  the  right  path  to  come  to  glory.  Finally,  shall  death "? 
Nay,  death  cannot  take  away  that  life  which  we  wish  and  wait  for." 

The  tone  of  tlie  wbole  epistle  is  gentle  and  tender,  as  if 
the  heart  of  the  writer  were  melted  with  sympathy  for  his 
persecuted  brethren ;  and  his  exposition  of  the  oflBces  of 
Christ,  as  the  all  andin  all  to  the  redeemed,  of  his  infinite 
worth  and  the  fulness  of  his  love,  breathe  a  richness  and 
fervor  of  piety,  which  conflicts  somewhat  with  the  com- 
mon notion  entertained  of  the  stern  Eeformer. 

The  New  Testament  was  no  sooner  completed,  than  the 
translator,  now  aided  by  learned  associates,  of  whom  Gil- 
by  and  Sampson,  two  of  his  distinguished  fellow-exiles,  are 
supposed  to  have  been  the  chief,  turned  his  attention  to  the 
Hebrew  Scriptures.     Elizabeth's  accession,  and  the  conse- 


THE    GENEVAN    BIBLE.  •  365 

quent  bappy  cliauge  of  affairs  in  tlic  autumn  of  1558,  in- 
vited them  back  to  England,  whither  the  great  body  of 
English  exiles  now  returned  with  joyful  haste.  But  so 
deeply  were  they  impressed  with  the  importance  of  finish- 
ing the  great  task  they  had  undertaken,  that  for  two  years 
longer  they  denied  themselves  the  sight  of  their  native  land, 
and  labored,  as  they  tell  us,  "  day  and  night,"  till  it  was 
completed.  In  1560  the  first  edition  of  the  complete  Ge- 
nevan version  appeared  in  England. 

As  Greek  philology  was  far  in  advance  of  Hebrew  wheu 
the  former  versions  were  made,  and  much  had  been  accom- 
plished in  the  latter  since  their  time,  the  Genevan  Old 
Testament  exhibited  a  yet  more  decided  improvement  than 
the  New.  In  both  divisions,  the  style  of  the  translation 
shows  it  to  have  been  an  entirely  independent  rendering 
of  the  original,  neither  studiously  departing  from  the  for- 
mer versions,  nor  trammeled  by  them,  where  the  transla- 
tor's view  of  the  sense  differs  from  theirs,  or  where  the 
same  sense  can  be  more  clearly  expressed  in  another  form. 
As  compared  with  Tyndale's,  its  manner  sometimes  appears 
dry  and  curt,  and  we  miss  in  it,  or  fancy  that  we  miss,  the 
glow  with  which  the  heart  of  the  old  translator  suffused  his 
phraseology ;  but  the  meaning  is  often  brought  out  with 
far  greater  distinctness.  The  English  is  in  every  respect 
as  intelligible  as  that  of  our  common  version,  not  seldom 
more  so,  and  the  two  would  still  be  read  with  great  profit 
in  connexion.  It  is,  indeed,  much  to  be  regretted  that  so 
excellent  a  version  should  not  be  rescued  from  the  dust 
of  past  ages,  and  made  accessible  to  English  readers  as  a 
help  to  the  better  understanding  of  their  Family  Bible, 

Its  usefulness  and  its  popularity  were  much  increased 
by  the  brief,  pithy  notes  added  by  the  translators,  con- 


366  THE    ENGLISH    BIBLE. 

taining  sucli  information  in  regard  to  Biblical  geography 
and  antiquities,  and  such  doctrinal  explanations,  as  were 
needed  for  the  clear  understanding  of  the  text.  Another 
feature,  which  indicates  the  liberal  spirit  of  the  translators, 
is  the  insertion  in  the  margin  of  various  readings,  thus 
placing  the  unlearned  reader,  so  far  as  possible,  in  the  po- 
sition of  the  scholar,  and  allowing  him  to  use  his  own 
judgment  as  to  which  of  the  readings  suits  best  with  the 
connexion.  A  less  commendable  novelty  is  the  division 
of  the  text  into  verses^  a  practice  till  then  unknown  in 
English  Bibles,  but  ever  since  as  pertinaciously  adhered 
to,  as  if  an  integral  part  of  the  inspired  word.  No  single 
thing,  probably,  has  done  more  towards  multiplying  sects 
in  the  Christian  body,  and  substituting  a  dry,  dogmatic 
theology  in  place  of  the  living  sap  of  revealed  truth,  than 
this  mischievous  device,  for  which  there  is  but  one  poor 
plea — the  advantage  of  easy  reference. 

To  the  whole  Bible,  thus  completed,  was  prefixed  an 
Epistle  "  to  our  beloved  brethren  in  England,  Scotland, 
and  Ireland,"  in  which  they  explain  their  reasons  for  send- 
ing forth  a  new  version. 

"  Now,  forasmuch  as  this  thing  [progress  in  a  holy  life]  is  chiefly  attained 
by  the  knowledge  and  practising  of  the  word  of  God,  (which  is  the  light  to 
our  paths,  the  key  of  the  kingdom  of  Heaven,  our  comfort  in  affliction,  our 
shield  and  sword  against  Satan,  the  school  of  all  wisdom,  the  glass  wherein 
we  behold  God's  face,  the  testimony  of  his  favor,  and  the  only  food  and 
nourishment  of  our  souls,)  we  thought  we  could  bestow  our  labors  and  study 
in  nothing  which  could  be  more  acceptable  to  God,  and  comfortable  to  his 
church,  than  in  the  translating  of  the  Scriptures  into  our  native  tongue  ;  the 
which  thing,  all»eit  that  others  heretofore  have  endeavored  to  achieve,  yet, 
considering  the  infancy  of  those  times  and  imperfect  knowledge  of  the 
tongues,  in  respect  of  this  ripe  age  and  clear  light  which  God  hath  now  re- 
vealed the  translations  required  greatly  to  be  perused  and  reformed." 

Tlie  Genevan  Bible  at  once  found  favor  with  the  people 


THE    GENEVAN    BIBLE.         "  367 

and  established  itself  in  a  wonderfully  brief  period  as  the 
Family  Bible  of  England.  Unsustained  aud  even  dis- 
countenanced by  the  ruling  ecclesiastical  powers,  it  not 
only  supplanted  the  earlier  versions,  but  maintained  its 
place  against  two  powerful  competitors  of  later  date,  as 
the  favorite  version  of  the  people,  for  the  greater  part  of  a 
century.  During  this  time,  it  passed  (including  the  separ- 
ate issues  of  the  New  Testament)  through  a  hundred 
and  fifty  editions.  It  even  made  its  way  to  a  considerable 
extent  into  churches,  being  preferred  by  many  clergymen 
even  after  the  publication  of  the  Bishops'  Bible.  It  still 
continued  to  be  printed  for  private  use  long  after  the  ap- 
pearance of  King  James'  revision,  the  last  ascertained 
edition  bearing  date  1644.  So  pertinaciously,  indeed, 
did  the  people  cling  to  it,  and  so  injurious  was  its 
influence  to  the  interests  of  Episcopacy  and  of  the  "  author- 
ized version,"  that  in  the  reign  of  Charles  I,  Archbishop 
Laud  made  the  vending,  binding,  or  importation  of  it  a 
high-commission  crime.*  Even  so  late  as  1649,  an  attempt 
was  made  to  commend  King  James'  Bible  to  popular  favor, 
thirty-eight  years  from  its  first  publication,  by  printing 
with  it  the  Genevan  Notes!  But  after  that  time,  the  old 
Family  Bible  gradually  disappeared  from  the  homos  and 
hearths  of  England,  and  gave  place  to  that  which  has  been 
eo  long  known  and  honored  as  the  Common  Version. 

The  success  of  the  Genevan  version  is  to  be  explained 
chiefly  from  two  causes :  First,  its  intrinsic  merits,  as  a 
faithful  and  clear  transcript  of  the  inspired  word,  accor^ 
ing  to  the  best  scholarship  of  the  age.  Its  character  in 
this  respect  was  so  unquestionable,  as  to  secure  for  it  n"i- 

*  Anderson  Vol.  II,  p.  39U. 


368  THE    ENGLISH    BIBLE. 

versal  respect,  and  to  draw  even  fi-om  those  who  least  liked 
its  influence,  a  frank  concession  of  its  excellence.*  Second, 
its  origin  in  the  stronghold  of  Presbjterianism,  its  connec- 
tion with  the  name  of  Calvin,  and  with  the  doctrines,  the 
severe  simplicity  in  forms,  and  the  comparative  Christian 
equality  prevailing  in  the  Genevan  church,  commended  it  to 
the  warmest  sympathy  of  that  large  and  increasing  body,  the 
Puritan  party  in  the  church  of  England.  To  them,  it  be- 
came the  symbol  of  all  they  wished  to  see  in  their  native 
land  ,  of  a  church  reform,  which  should  sweep  away  every 
thing  in  Christian  worship  borrowed  from  the  traditions 
of  the  church  of  Ptome,  and  which  should  conform  it,  out- 
wardly as  well  as  inwardly,  to  the  model  furnished  in  the 
word  of  God.  How  much  it  thus  did,  directly  and  indi- 
rectly, both  for  the  spread  of  real  piety,  and  for*the  devel- 
opment of  Puritanism,  and  of  the  spirit  of  religious  and 
civil  liberty  in  England,  it  is  impossible  to  estimate. 

What  cause  is  it  for  regret,  that  its  influence  should  not 
have  been  wholly  on  the  side  of  truth  and  freedom  !  But 
the  Genevan  associations,  so  intimately  linked  with  its  ex- 
istence, were  not  all  beneficial.  Genevan  Presbyterianism 
— far  as  it  had  advanced,  in  other  respects,  beyond  Popery 
and  Episcopacy — had  not  learned  to  respect  the  rights  of 
conscience.  While  she  secured  Christian  liberty,  in  larger 
measure,  and  to  a  greater  number  than  did  her  Anglican 
sister,  her  hand  was  no  less  heavy  on  those  outside  her  con- 
secrated pale ;  and  the  sword  of  the  magistrate  was  recog- 
nized as  well  by  Calvin  as  by  Cranmer,  as  the  proper 
guardian  of  the  purity  and  order  of  the  church  of  Christ. 
*  This  spirit  had  left  its  impress,  in  no  questionable  char- 
acters, on  the  Genevan  Bible.     The  Old  Testament  had 

*  Strjpe's  Life  of  Archbishop  Parker,  p,  207. 


THE    GENEVAN    BTBLE.  369 

been  completed  in  the  initial  period  of  Elizabeth's  reign, 
when  her  policy  as  yet  seemed  undecided,  and  the  reform 
party  indulged  the  confident  expectation  that  the  English 
Church,  shattered  to  its  foundations  by  Mary,  would  be 
reconstructed  in  accordance  with  their  views.  Under  this 
exhilarating  idea,  the  translators,  in  the  dedication  of  their 
work  to  that  "  most  vertuous  and  noble  ladie,"  thus  ex- 
horted her  to  exercise  her  powers  as  civil  ruler,  for  the 
suppression  of  error  and  establishment  of  truth  : 

"  Now  as  he  that  goeth  about  to  lay  a  foundation  surely,  first  taketh 
away  such  impeJimer^ts  as  might  justly  either  hurt,  let,  or  deform  the  work  ; 
so  is  it  necessary  that  your  Grace's  zeal  appear  herein,  that  neither  the 
crafty  persuasion  of  man,  neither  worldly  policy  or  natural  fear,  dissuade 
you  to  root  out,  cut  down,  and  destroy  those  weeds  and  impediments  which 
do  not  only  deface  your  building,  but  utterly  endeavor — yea,  and  threaten 
the  ruin  thereof.  For  when  the  noble  Josias  enterprised  the  like  kind  of 
work,  among  other  notable  and  many  things,  he  destroyed  not  only  with 
litter  confusion  the  idols  and  their  appurtenances,  but  also  burnt  (in  sign  of 
detestation)  the  idolatrous  priests'  bones  upon  their  altars,  and  put  to  death 
the  false  prophets  and  sorcerers,  to  perform  the  words  of  the  law-  of  God : 
and  therefore  God  gave  him  good  success,  and  blessed  him  wonderfully,  so 
long  as  he  made  God's  word  his  line  and  rule  to  follow,  and  enterprised  no- 
thing before  he  had  enquired  at  the  mouth  of  the  Lord. 

"  And  if  these  zealous  beginnings  seem  dangerous,  and  to  breed  disquiet- 
riess  in  j'our  dominions,  yet  by  the  story  of  King  Asa  it  is  manifest  that  the 
quietness  and  peace  of  kingdoms  standeth  in  the  utter  abolishing  of  idolatry, 
and  in  advancing  of  true  religion  ;  for  in  his  days  Judah  lived  in  rest  and 
quietness  for  the  space  of  five  and  thirty  years,  till  at  length  he  began  to  be 
cold  in  the  zeal  of  the  Lord,  feared  the  power  of  man,  imprisoned  the  Pro- 
phet of  God,  and  oppressed  the  people  ;  then  the  Lord  sent  him  wars,  and 
at  length  took  him  away  by  death. 

"  Moreover,  the  marvellous  diligence  and  zeal  of  Jehoshaphat,  Josiah, 
and  Hezekiah.  are,  by  the  singular  providence  of  God,  left  as  an  example 
to  all  godly  rulers  to  reform  their  countries,  and  to  establish  the  word  of 
God  with  all  speed,  lest  the  wrath  of  God  fall  upon  them  for  the  neglecting 
thereof.  For  these  excellent  kings  did  not  only  embrace  the  word  promptly 
and  joyfully,  but  also  procured  earnestly,  and  commanded  the  same  to  be 

16* 


370  THE    ENGLISH    BIBLE. 

taught,  preached,  and  maintained  through  all  their  countries  and  dominions 
— binding  them  and  all  their  subjects,  both  great  and  small,  with  solemn 
protestations  and  covenants  before  God,  to  obey  the  word,  and  walk  after 
the  ways  of  the  Lord.  Yea,  and  in  the  days  of  King  Asa,  it  was  enacted 
that  whosoever  would  not  seek  the  Lord  God  of  Israel,  should  be  slain, 
whether  he  were  small  or  great,  man  or  woman," 

The  shrewd  Princess  was  quite  ready  to  acknowledge 
the  principle  thus  laid  down,  but  not  the  application  of  it 
intended  by  its  expositors.  If  conjecture  is  right  in  regard 
to  the  names  of  the  translators,  some  of  the  very  men  who 
penned  this  dangerous  counsel,  and  made  God's  charter  of 
human  rights  the  medium  for  communicating  it  to  the 
royal  mind,  were  soon  made  to  drink  deeply  of  the  cup 
which  they  had  mixed  for  others.  Yet  even  the  humilia- 
tions so  steadfastly  endured,  and  the  blood  so  freely  shed 
by  Puritans  in  this  and  the  succeeding  reigns  in  behalf  of 
religious  liberty,  could  not  eradicate  from  their  veins  this 
early  taint.  Not  till  they  had  breathed  the  free  air  of  the 
western  wilderness  two  hundred  years,  did  they  fully  learn 
the  lesson,  that  Christianity  can  live  and  flourish  unpro- 
tected by  the  State. 

Thus  the  English  Bible  went  forth  once  more  in  in- 
creased energy,  still  restricted  in  its  action  by  human  in- 
firmity, but  bearing  within  itself  the  power  gradually  to 
overcome  and  subdue  all  that  could  hinder  the  perfect  ful- 
fillment of  its  mission. 


CHAPTER  XVIII. 


THE  BISHOPS'  BIBLE. 

li\  1561,  the  third  year  of  Elizabeth's  reign,  John  Bod- 
leigh,  with  whom  we  have  already  become  acquainted 
in  the  account  of  the  Genevan  Bible,  obtained  from  the 
Queen's  government  a  patent  for  the  exclusive  right  to 
print  that  version  during  the  seven  years  next  ensuing. 
In  1566,  having  a  thoroughly  revised  edition  ready  for  the 
press,  and  wishing  to  print  it  in  England,  he  applied  to 
Cecil,  the  Queen's  Secretary,  for  an  extension  of  this 
license.  Before  giving  him  a  reply,  Cecil  consulted  with 
Parker,  Archbishop  of  Canterbury,  and  Grindal,  Bishop  of 
London.  Their  answer  contains  three  striking  points. 
First,  a  recognition  from  these  dignitaries  of  the  great 
merit  of  the  Genevan  Bible,  on  which  account  they  recom- 
mended the  extension  of  Bodleigh's  privilege  to  twelve 
years  longer ;  secondly,  the  announcement  of  their  design 
to  set  forth  a  special  translation  for  use  in  churches  ;  third- 
ly, the  condition  proposed  to  be  annexed  to  Bodleigh's 
patent,  viz.,  a  promise,  "in  writing  under  his  hand,  that 
no  impression  of  the  Genevan  Bible  sIlouIcI  pass  without 
their  direction,  consent,  and  advice^ 

To  elucidate  the  bearings  of  this  reply  requires  a  brief 


372  THE    ENGLISH    BIBLE. 

view  of  the  policy  now  establisted  in  the  Elizabethan 
church ;  a  policy  which  continued  to  govern  it  with  ex- 
tended claims  and  increasing  force,  till  in  the  hands  of 
Charles  I.,  the  overstrung  bow  broke  with  its  own  tension, 
and  State-Church  and  Church-State  fell  in  common  ruin. 

At  the  accession  of  Elizabeth,  there  were  tokens  that 
the  spirit  of  Christian  liberality  and  union  had  very  consid- 
erably increased  among  English  Protestants.  Their  com- 
mon sufferings  during  the  preceding  bloody  reign,  and  the 
fraternal  sympathy  and  hospitality  which  they  had  received 
from  the  Reformed  churches  abroad,  had  at  once  exalted 
in  their  regard  the  essential  grounds  of  faith  in  which 
they  agreed,  and  lowered  their  estimate  of  the  external 
forms  in  which  they  differed.  In  anticipation  of  the  re- 
organization of  the  English  Church,  a  general  disposition 
was  manifested  to  lay  less  stress  on  an  exact  outward  uni- 
formity, and  to  leave  the  details  of  habits  and  ceremonies 
to  individual  conscience  and  discretion.  The  letters  of 
the  returned  exiles  to  their  Presbyterian  brethren  on  the 
continent,  not  only  breathe  this  spirit  of  conciliation,  but 
show  a  decided  leaning  towards  the  simpler  and  more  dem- 
ocratic form  of  church  government  which  prevailed  in  the 
Swiss  churches,  as  being  more  closely  conformed  to  the 
New  Testament  model,  and  better  adapted  to  the  edifica- 
tion of  the  people.* 

But  in  this  they  had  reckoned  without  their  host.  Eli- 
zabeth had  no  intention  of  being  a  whit  less  a  monarch 
than  her  father.  She  valued  the  Reformation,  not  so 
much  for  the  truth  it  propagated,  as  for  the  foundation  it 
offered  for  her  own  supremacy.     She  did  not  wish  the 

*  Bnmet,  vol.  IT. 


THE  Bisnors'  bible.  373 

Pope  of  Rome  to  rule  in  her  dominions,  because  she  wished 
to  be  herself  Pope,  sole  ruler  over  the  actions  and  the 
consciences  of  her  subjects.  In  the  preceding  reign  she 
had  conformed  to  the  dominant  faith,  probably  without 
much  violence  to  her  principles  ;  and  her  tastes  were  at 
least  fully  in  harmony  with  its  aristocratical  constitution 
and  its  pompous  rituah  But  under  no  circumstances  could 
she  have  become  the  devotee  of  any  religion.  Her  clear 
masculine  intellect,  cold  heart,  and  iron  will,  moved  but  at 
the  bidding  of  one  passion,  and  that  the  least  religious  of 
all  passions,  the  love  of  power.  Religion  was  to  her  sim- 
ply the  right  hand  of  that  power.  As  such,  it  was  to  be 
cherished;  but,  as  such  also,  to  be  held  in  strict  subjec- 
tion, and  to  be  employed  in  whatever  service  would  pro- 
mote her  grand  design.  She  was  quick  to  see  that  only  a 
despotism  in  the  Church  could  form  a  sure  basis  for  des- 
potism in  the  State.  Men  accustomed  in  the  management 
of  their  religious  affairs  to  freedom  of  opinion  and  action, 
would  soon  begin  to  enquire  whether  they  were  not  com- 
petent to  exercise  the  same  freedom,  in  regard  to  all  things 
which  concerned  their  interest  and  happiness.  Popular 
elections  in  the  church  were  dangerous  precedents  to  be 
admitted  into  an  absolute  monarchy,  such  as  she  sought 
to  establish ;  while  the  habit  of  unquestioning  subjection 
to  authority  in  matters  of  conscience,  was  the  surest  gua- 
rantee of  docility  to  the  civil  power.  Under  a  govern- 
ment which  united  in  one  person  the  highest  ecclesiastical 
and  the  highest  civil  authority,  this  result  was  inevitable. 
So,  accordingly,  she  willed  it  to  be. 

The  state  of  the  nation  at  her  accession  gave  free  scope 
to  her  ambitious  plans.  Ignorant  of  their  own  rights  and 
their  own  strength,  never  yet  having  felt  the  invigorating 


374  THE    ENGLISH   BIBLE. 

tlirill  of  conscious  freedom,  her  subjects  had  no  other  idea 
of  security,  than  that  of  clinging  like  timid  children,  to 
the  skirts  of  royalty.  Majesty  was  then  at  its  highest 
premium  in  England.  Its  frowns  were  like  the  artillery 
of  heaven,  terrible  yet  glorious  -to  behold ;  its  smile  melted 
the  blessed  recipient,  as  the  sun  melts  wax,  into  whatever 
shape  it  might  please  the  imperial  will  to  cast  him.  Pro- 
testant Elizabeth,  with  her  large,  self-reliant,  dauntless 
nature,  seemed  to  her  poor  distracted  people  like  a  strong 
tower,  into  which  they  might  run  and  be  safe  ;  and  every 
prerogative  -which  could  be  taken  from  other  hands  and 
placed  in  hers,  was  supposed  to  be  so  much  gained  to- 
wards their  well-being.  Her  first  Parliament  invested 
her  with  powers  which,  though  nominally  restricted  by 
the  Constitution,  rendered  her  in  fact  absolute  by  law. 

Two  principal  enactments,  which  fixed  as  in  an  irou 
mould  the  character  of  her  long  reign,  distinguished  this 
session.  The  first  recognized  the  royal  supremacy  in  all 
causes,  ecclesiastical  and  civil ;  the  second  established  uni- 
formity in  religion  as  the  law  of  the  land.  A  clause  in 
the  first  of  these  Acts  empowered  the  Queen  and  her  suc- 
cessors, to  delegate  to  such  of  her  subjects  as  they  shall 
think  meet,  as  often  and  for  as  long  time  as  they  please, 
"  all  manner  of  jurisdiction,  privileges,  and  preeminences 
touching  any  spiritual  or  ecclesiastical  jurisdiction  within 
the  realms  of  England  and  Ireland,  to  visit,  reform,  re- 
dress, order,  correct,  and  amend  all  errors,  heresies, 
schisms,  abuses,  contempts,  ofi"ences,  and  enormities  what- 
soever." Under  this  clause  originated  the  High  Commis- 
sion, an  ecclesiastical  court  appointed  by  the  Queen,  and 
accountable  to  her  alone,  through  which  for  nearly  half  a 
century  she  and  her  bishops  ruled  with  an  iron  rod  over 


THE  bishops'  bible.  375 

the  consciences  of  her  subjects.  The  jurisdiction  of  this 
court  extended  over  the  whole  kingdom,  and  included 
alike  clergy  and  laity.  Any  three  members  of  it  were 
competent  to  inquire,  "  on  the  oath  of  twelve  men,  by  wit- 
nesses, or  by  any  other  ways  and  means  they  could  devise,"* 
respecting  all  offences  against  the  Acts  of  Supremacy  and 
Uniformity,  "  and  also  to  inquire  of  all  heretical  opinions, 
seditious  books,  contempts,  conspiracies,  false  rumors  or 
talks,  slanderous  words  and  sayings,  &c.,  contrary  to  the 
aforesaid  laws,  or  any  others  ordained  for  the  maintenance 
of  religion  in  tliis  realm,  together  with  their  abettors, 
counsellors,  and  coadjutors."  Any  three  of  them — the 
Primate  or  a  bishop  being  one — were  competent  to  try  all 
cases  of  willful  absence  from  the  divine  service,  as  estab- 
lished by  law,  and  to  punish  the  offenders  by  church  cen- 
sures, or  by  fines  levied  on  their  lands,  goods,  and  tene- 
ments. Any  three  of  them  might  try  the  holder  of  any 
ecclesiastical  living  on  matters  of  faith  and  doctrine,  and 
eject  him  at  their  discretion.  Any  six  of  them,  whereof 
some  must  be  bishops,  might  "  examine,  alter,  review,  and 
amend  the  statutes  of  colleges,  cathedrals,  grammar-schools, 
and  other  public  foundations."  It  was  a  part  of  their  duty 
to  tender  the  oath  of  supremacy  to  all  ministers,  and  to  re- 
port the  names  of  such  as  refused  it  to  the  King's  Bench, 
The  most  odious  feature  of  this  odious  system,  was  the 
power  vested  in  the  Commissioners  to  summon  before  them 
any  person,  merely  upon  suspicion,  and  without  exhibiting 
any  charge  against  him,  or  confronting  him  with  witnesses, 
to  compel  him,  by  the  oath  ex  officio,  to   testify  against 

*  "  That  is,"  says  Neal,  "  by  the  inquisition,  by  the  rack,  by  torture,  oi 
any  ways  and  means  that  forty-four  sovereign  judges  should  devise  ;"  or, 
it  ahould  be  added,  any  three  of  them. 


376  THE    ENGLISH    BIBLE. 

liiraself.  Many  were  thus  forced  not  only  to  convict  them- 
selves, but  their  nearest  relatives  and  friends.  But  no 
man  was  cleared  on  his  own  oath.  This  method  of  making 
a  man  his  own  accuser  in  a  court  of  justice,  was  sufficiently 
detestable  in  the  hands  of  a  Romish  Bishop  or  Chancellor  ; 
but  in  them  it  was  consistent.  How  Protestant  bishops 
and  statesmen  could  use  it,  and  look  a  Papist  in  the  face, 
is  a  riddle.  The  mandates  of  this  court,  or  of  any  three 
of  its  members,  were  made  binding  on  "  all  justices  of 
peace,  mayors,  sheriffs,  bailiffs,  constables,  and  all  other 
officers,  ministers  and  subjects,  in  all  and  every  place,  ex- 
empt or  not  exempt,  within  the  realm ;  neglect  of  the  same  to 
be  answered  at  their  utmost  perils."*  They  had  their 
spies  in  all  suspected  parishes,  to  note  such  as  did  not  come 
regularly  to  church ;  and  these  being  summoned  and  com- 
mitted to  prison,  the  keepers  were  to  mark  such  as  came 
to  visit  and  relieve  them,  and  give  information  accordingly. t 
A  powerful  ally  to  the  High  Commission  was  furnished 
by  the  Star  Chamber,  a  criminal  court,  likewise  appointed 
by  the  Queen,  and  responsible  to  her  alone ;  whose  deci- 
sions, though  merely  expressions  of  the  royal  will,  were 
made  as  bind  in  o;  as  acts  of  Parliament.  The  High  Com- 
mission,  being  an  ecclesiastical  court,  had  some  limit  in 
the  nature  of  offences,  and  was  not  competent  to  inflict 
heavier  penalties  than  fines,  deprivation,  and  imprison- 
ment ;  though  in  both  these  points  it  stretched  its  powers 
beyond  all  legal  bounds.  But  whatever  it  could  not  do, 
the  Star  Chamber  could ;  and  moreover,  non-conformity 
to   the  established   church  being  constituted  disobedience 

*  See  Strypc's  Life  of  Archbishop  Grindal,  Appendix  Jfo.  vi — The  Ec- 
clesiastical Comviission granted  to  the  High  Commission,  ifn. 
tNeal,  Yol.I.  p.  130. 


THE    EI&HOPS'    BIBLE.  377 

to  the  realm,  such  ecclesiastical  cases  as  required  severer 
punishments  than  the  former  was  competent  to  inflict, 
could  be  turned  over  to  the  latter,  which  had  the  power 
of  life  and  death.  Both  b.dies  being  composed  in  part  of 
the  same  men,  and  the  monarch  supreme  in  both,  they 
could  play  unchecked  into  each  others  hands  ;  and  they 
were,  in  fact,  but  the  mutual  complements  of  that  system 
of  despotic  rule,  by  which  she  was  able  to  override  consti- 
tution and  statute,  and  reduce  her  subjects  to  mere  depen- 
dents on  her  supreme  will  and  pleasure.*  It  was  due 
alone  to  Elizabeth's  great  personal  qualities  ;  her  self-con- 
trol, which  could  sometimes  forbear  a  present  advantage 
rather  than  endanger  a  greater  one  to  come ;  her  wisdom, 
which  could  discern  in  the  substantial  prosperity  of  her 
realm  the  surest  basis  of  her  own  supremacy,  that  the 
nation  so  long  bowed  patiently  to  her  heavy  yoke,  and  that 
even  those  who  suffered  most,  maintained  to  the  last  their 
loyalty  and  affection  for  her  person.f 

*  Even  that  last  refuge  of  liberty,  the  right  of  petitioning  against  existing 
grievances,  was  denied  by  this  imperious  princess,  and  that  not  to  private 
individuals  alone,  but  to  Parliament  itself.  In  1586,  the  House  of  Com- 
mons, having  prayed  for  a  modification  in  the  Church  Constitution,  were  told 
in  reply  that  "  Her  Majesty  took  their  petition  herein  to  be  against  the 
prerogative  of  her  crown.  For  by  their  full  consents,  it  bath  been  confirmed 
and  enacted,  (as  the  truth  herein  requireth,)  that  the  full  power,  authority, 
jurisdiction  and  supremacy  in  Church  causes,  which  heretofore  the  Popes 
usurped  and  took  unto  themselves,  should  be  anne-^ied  and  united  to  the  im- 
perial crown  of  this  realm." — Strype's  Life  of  Wliitgift,  p.  260. 

tThis  was  remarkably  exemplified  in  the  case  of  Mr.  ,?tubbs,  a  student  of 
Lincoln's  Inn,  and  brother-in-law  of  that  distinguighed  Nonconformist  leader, 
Thomas  Cartright.  Stubbs  bad  written  a  tract  against  the  Queen's  projected 
marriage  with  the  Duke  of  Anjou,  who,  being  a  Papist,  would,  it  wag 
feared,  be  the  means  of  restoring  Romanism  in  England ;  and  for  the  offence 
was  condemned  to  lose  his  right  hand.  The  instant  the  cruel  sentence  wag 
executed,  by  driving  a  cleaver  through  his  wrist  with  a  maUet,  he  pulled  off 


378  THE    ENGLISH    BIBLE, 

The  Queen  had  not  far  to  look  for  instruments  to 
carry  out  her  plans.  It  was,  at  first,  her  hope  that  the 
Romish  prelates  who  occupied  the  high  positions  of  the 
church  at  her  accession,  would,  as  had  been  the  case  with 
Henry's  bishops,  acknowledge  her  supremacy  and  retain 
their  places.  This  expectation  proving  vain,  the  Queen 
turned  to  the  Reformed  clergy.  Had  they,  at  this  mo- 
ment, stood  firmly  united  on  the  views  entertained  by  the 
great  majority,  that  a  certain  prescribed  out  of  the  clerical 
garb  must  not  be  made  the  condition  of  ofiSce  in  the  Chris- 
tian church,  what  a  glorious  epoch  might  this  have  proved 
for  the  Reformation  in  England !  For  at  this  period  of 
its  history  there  was  no  disagreement  in  respect  to  doc 
trine,  and  none  that  was  insurmountable  in  respect  to  disci- 
pline ;  and  Elizabeth  and  her  counsellors  were  too  wise  to 
have  allowed,  on  such  grounds,  a  breach  between  herself 
and  the  united  English  clergy.  Had  but  this  seemingly 
little  stumbling-block  now  been  removed  out  of  the  way, 
the  church  would  have  been  replenished  with  a  learned, 
godly  ministry,  mellowed  by  recent  suiFering,  yet  globing 
with  that  active,  aggressive  zeal  for  the  Gospel  which  al- 
ways marks  the  growth-periods  of  the  Christian  body. 
But  it  was  not  so  to  be.  When  that  which  had  hitherto 
been  theory  became  a  question  of  practice,  many  faltered  in 
their  convictions.  Might  it  not  be  duty,  they  asked,  to 
sacrifice  their  feelings  on  these  unessential  points,  rather 
than  leave  the  church  wholly  unfurnished  with  a  Protest- 
ant ministry  ?  Should  they  not,  indeed,  by  this  present 
small  compliance,  be  securing  the  power  necessary  to  bring 
all  things  right  in  the  end  ?     It  was   a   tempting  but  a 

Lis  hat  with  the  remaining  hand  and  cried  with  a  loud  voice,  "  God  save  the 
Qneen !" 


THE  bishops'  bible.  379 

poisoned  bait,  as  miglit  soon  be  discerned  by  tlie  change 
in  the  spirit  of  those  who  yielded.  Some  of  the  conform- 
ing bishops  continued  to  regard  the  contested  points  as 
really  matters  of  indift'erence,  and  sometimes  pleaded  earn- 
estly for  their  brethren  whom  they  had  left ;  but  the  ma- 
jority quickly  caught  the  temper  of  their  royal  head,  and 
almost  out-stripped  her  wishes,  at  least  her  views  of 
what  was  prudent,  by  the  vigor  with  which  they  pressed 
conformity.  Thus  did  conscious  power,  unaccHstomed 
wealth  and  the  pride  of  place,  gained  by  so  slight  a  com- 
promise with  conscience,  corrupt  men  whose  bearing  under 
poverty,  persecution  and  exile,  had  cast  fresh  lustre  on  the 
faith  which  they  professed. 

At  this  point,  the  Protestant  host  of  England  parted 
into  two  hostile  bands,  never  again  to  reunite.  On  the 
one  side  was  the  rich  and  gorgeous  Church,  linked  indis- 
solubly  with  the  State  ;  an  almost  absolute  sovereign  their 
common  head  ;  the  whole  legislative  and  executive  power 
of  the  kingdom  at  their  command.  On  the  other  were  a 
few  hundred  ministers,  confessedly  the  flower  of  the  Eng- 
lish clergy,  but  in  regard  to  all  their  temporal  interests, 
their  personal  freedom  and  even  life,  wholly  at  the  mercy 
of  their  antagonists.  The  friends  of  Protestantism  abroad 
beheld  the  spectacle  with  mortification  and  dismay ;  and 
some  of  those  who  had  most  warmly  urged  on  the  adhe- 
rents of  reform,  now  counselled  compliance  rather  than 
allow  a  breach  so  disastrous  to  religion,  so  favorable  to  the 
resuscitation  of  Popery.  We  who  can  look  back  not  only 
upon  the  conflict  but  its  results,  bless  that  immovable 
adherence  to  principle  which  refused  to  do  evil  that  good 
might  come.  In  the  decision  of  those  Puritan  minis- 
ters, were  involved  not  only  the  religious  but   the  civil 


380  THE    ENGLISH  BIBLE. 

liberties  of  the  English  race.  For  it  may  safely  be  affirmed 
that,  at  the  period  now  before  us,  no  power  less  strong  than 
conscience,  the  fear  of  sinning  against  God,  could  have 
strengthened  men  to  oppose  the  sweeping  tide  of  absolut- 
ism. Under  the  prevailing  influences  of  the  time,  with  a 
monarch  like  Elizabeth,  at  once  despotic  and  popular,  wise  to 
govern  and  strong  to  defend  her  people,  civil  fi-eedom  would 
have  been  readily  bartered  for  peace,  security,  and  Protest- 
antism. But  conscience  was  something  which  these  men 
dared  not  barter.  Resistance  to  oppression  was  here  not  a 
matter  at  their  option,  but  a  duty  to  God  which  they  could 
not  evade.  Their  example  became  the  starting  point  of  free 
ideas;  and  the  English  people  learned  at  length  to  ques- 
tion, whether  they  had  been  made  for  the  sole  purpose  of 
being  governed. 

The  contest  was  at  first  rather  of  a  negative  character, 
consisting  on  the  one  side,  more  in  a  systematic  neglect 
of  the  nonconforming  clergy  than  in  positive  persecution  ; 
and  on  their  part  in  a  persevering  adherence  to  their  own 
views  of  duty.  The  new  Primate,  Matthew  Parker,  had 
enouo-h  to  do  for  a  while  in  securing  his  own  position,  and 
bringing  into  order  that  numerous  body  of  the  clergy,  who 
still  adhered  to  the  doctrines  of  Popery.  During  this  in- 
terval, the  Act  of  Uniformity  was  not  rigorously  pressed, 
and  a  considerable  number  of  ministers  who  had  not  sub- 
scribed it,  made  their  way  into  inferior  places  in  the 
church.  These  were  the  preachers  of  England,  Where 
they  were  found,  there  was  found  also  a  new  religious  life 
among  the  people,  and  the  errors  and  superstitions  of  Po- 
pery confessed  a  power  in  their  zealous  labors  and  holy 
examples,  not  acknowledged  in  parliamentary  acts  and 
royal   injunctions.      Among  them  was  Miles  Coverdale, 


THE    EISHOrs'    BIBLE.  381 

once  Bishop  of  Exeter,  more  known  and  honored  still  as  a 
Translator  of  the  Bible  into  his  mother  tongue ;  but  who 
was  now  thankful  to  be  allowed,  unpunished,  to  preach  the 
Gospel  here  and  there  as  he  could  find  opportunity.  Grin- 
dal.  Bishop  of  London,  a  man  of  kind  natural  disposition, 
at  length  so  far  compassionated  his  gray  hairs  and  pitiable 
state  of  poverty,  as  to  procure  for  him  in  1562  the  little 
parish  of  St.  Magnus,  London,  without  requiring  conformity. 
Among  them  was  also  John  Fose,  whose  Bookof  Martys  had 
done  more  than  any  other  work  except  the  Bible,  to  estab- 
lish the  Reformation  in  the  people's  hearts;  but  who  was  left 
unprovided  for  in  the  church  which  he  had  laid  under  so  sa- 
cred a  debt,  till  Cecil,  the  Queen's  Secretary,  obtained  for 
him  on  his  own  terms,  a  prebendary  in  Salisbury  church.* 
The  universities,  moreover,  did  not  join  in  this  wholesale 
proscription  of  men,  for  a  matter  of  opinion  which  affected 
neither  the  doctrine  nor  the  life.  Sampsonf  and  Hum- 
phrey, then  the  great  leaders  of  the  nonconformist  party, 
were  both  called  to  Oxford ;  the  first,  who  had  previously 
refused  the  bishopric  of  Norwich  on  the  stipulated  condi- 
tion, as  Dean  of  Christ  church,  the  other  as  President  of  Mag- 
dalen College,  and  were  there  held  in  the  highest  repute 
for  their  learning  and  virtue.  Under  these  circumstances, 
the  neglect  of  the  prescribed  habits  and  ceremonies  had 
greatly  increased  in  the  church  ;  so  that  "  the  Queen,"  as 
Strype  informs  us,   "  had  taken  great  ofience  at  many  of 


*  In  1650,  he  describes  himself  in  a  letter  to  a  friend,  as  a  member  "of  the 
Order  of  Mendicants,  or  of  the  Friars-Preachers  ;"  and  says  that  he  was 
"still  wearmg  the  clothes  that  England  received  him  in." 

f  Sampson,  it  will  be  remembered,  was  one  of  the  translators  of  the  Ge- 
nevan Bible. 


382  THE    ENGLISH    BIBLE. 

the  clergy,  liaving  information  how  remiss  they  were,  both 
in  the  University  and  out  of  it,  especially  in  the  city  of 
London,  in  wearing  the  habits  appointed  for  the  clergy  to 
use  in  time  of  ministration  and  at  other  times  ;  chiefly  the 
square  cap,  the  tippet,  and  the  surplice."  So  far  indeed 
were  the  consecrated  vestments  from  being  regarded  with 
due  reverence,  that  they  had  become  a  jest  and  by-word 
with  many  both  of  the  clergy  and  laity,  who  called  them 
the  "  conjuring  garments  of  Popery;"  while  the  Bishops 
themselves  were  dignified  with  the  titles  of  "White-Coats, 
and  Tippet-Gentlemen."  Some,  moreover,  had  begun  pro- 
fanely to  enquire  :  "  Who  gave  them  authority  more  over 
me  than  I  over  them,  either  to  forbid  me  preaching,  or 
to  deprive  me,  unless  they  have  it  from  their  Holy 
Father  the  Pope  ?"*  Her  Majesty,  therefore,  in  January 
1564,  directed  her  Archbishop  and  other  bishops  of  the 
High  Commission,  "  that  orders  might  be  taken  whereby 
all  diversities  and  varieties  among  the  clergy  and  laity,  as 
breeding  nothing  but  contention  and  breach  of  common 
charity,  and  against  the  laws  and  good  usage  and  ordin- 
ances of  the  realm,  might  be  reformed  and  repressed,  and 
brought  to  one  manner  of  uniformity  throughout  the 
realm." 

The  Archbishop  himself  thought  it  now  high  time  to 
look  into  these  irregular  proceedings,  and  to  bring  this 
free-spoken  ministry  into  a  wholesome  subjection.  The 
following  list  of  the  dangerous  varieties  in  divine  service 
then  practised  by  clergymen,  is  quoted  by  Strype,  from  a 
manuscript  copy  found  among  the  papers  of  Secretary 
Cecil,  dated  Feb.  14th,  1564 

*  Strype's  Life  of  Archbishop  Parker,  p.  151. 


THE  bishops'  bible.  383 

"Varieties  in  the  Service  and  Administration  used. 

Service  and  Prayer. 
Some  say  the  Service  and  Prayers  in  the  chancel,  others  in  the  body  of 
the  Church.    Some  say  the  same  in  a  seat  made  in  the  church ;  some  in  the 
pulpit  with  their  faces  to  the  people.     Some  say  it  with  a  surplice,  others 
without  a  surplice. 

Table. 
The  table  standcth  in  the  body  of  the  church  in  some  places ;  in  others,  it 
standeth  in  the  chancel.     In  some  places  the  table  standeth  altar-wise,  dis- 
tant from  the  wall  yard.     In  some  places  in  the  middle  of  the  chancel,  north 
and  south.     In  some  places  the  table  is  joined  ;  in  others,  it  standeth  upon 
tressels.    In  some  it  standeth  upon  a  carpet ;  in  others  it  hath  none. 
Administration  of  the  Communion. 
Some  with  surplice  and  cap;  some  with  surplice  alone;  others  with  none. 
Some  with  chalice;  some  with  a  communion  cup;  others  with  a  common 
cup.    Some  with  unleavened  bread ;  some  with  leavened. 
Receiving. 
Some  receive  kneeling,  others  standing,  others  sitting. 
Baptizing. 
■4     Some  baptize  in  a  font ;  some  in  a  basin.     Some  sign  with  the  sign  of 
the  cross ;  others  sign  not.     Some  minister  in  a  surplice  ;  others  without. 
Apparel. 
Some  with  a  square  cap  ;  some  with  a  round  cap ;  some  with  a  button  cap  ; 
some  with  a  hat.    Some  in  scholars'  clothes ;  some  in  others." 

It  has  been  objected  to  the  Puritans  that  their  grounds 
of  dissent  were  trivial,  and  insufficient  to  justify  a  schism 
in  the  Christian  body.  Since  God  regards  merely  the  heart 
and  not  the  dress,  or  place,  or  posture,  why,  it  is  urged, 
could  they  not  have  sacrificed  their  own  feelings  in  these 
indifferent  points,  to  the  preservation  of  Christian  unity  ? 
To  this  argument  they  replied,  at  the  time,  that  things  in 
themselves  indifferent  changed  their  nature  when  imposed 
on  the  church  of  Christ  as  necessary,  by  a  self-constituted 
power.  They  then  became  the  test  of  a  vital  principle, 
viz.,  whether  or  not  there  resided  in  any  individual,  or  in 


384  THE    ENGLISH    BIBLE. 

any  body,  ecclesiastical  or  civil,  the  competency  of  extra- 
Scriptural  legislation  for  the  church;  in  other  words, 
whether  the  Bible  were  the  sufficient  and  only  authoritative 
standard  for  the  church  in  all  matters,  and  as  well  in  re- 
gard to  her  order  and  discipline  as  to  her  doctrine.  Eliza- 
beth and  her  Primate  held  the  negative  of  this  question. 
They  maintained,  that  it  was  from  the  necessities  of  the 
time  alone  that  the  apostolic  churches  received  their  pecu- 
liar form,  which,  therefore,  was  temporary  and  not  to  be 
accepted  ai  the  permanent  model ;  and  that  it  belongs  to 
the  government  of  each  country  to  settle  the  organization, 
rites,  and  observances,  of  that  division  of  the  church  lying 
within  its  territory,  and  to  enforce  them  on  all  its  subjects. 
The  Puritans,  on  the  contrary,  held  to  the  sufficiency  and 
binding  authority  of  the  Scriptures,  in  all  respects ;  and 
refused,  by  submission  to  ceremonies  in  themselves  indif- 
ferent, to  acknowledge  what  they  believed  an  unlawful  and 
indeed  fatal  principle. 

But  they  had  a  farther  objection.  What  to  the  edu- 
cated and  enlightened  were  things  indifferent,  were  not  so 
to  the  people.  In  their  eyes,  the  clerical  vestments  stood 
for  the  doctrines  with  which  they  had  been  accustomed  to 
associate  them.  Some,  we  are  told,  now  regarded  the  sur- 
plice with  a  superstitious  reverence  scarcely  exceeded  by 
that  once  felt  for  the  monk's  cowl,  a  fragment  of  which  was 
looked  on  as  the  possessor's  sure  passport  to  heaven.  The 
embroidered  cross  on  the  cope  was  to  them  the  symbol  of 
image-worship.  The  kneeling  posture  at  the  supper,  the 
chalice,  and  the  hallowed  wafer,  to  them  recognized  the 
Mass,  a  propitiatory  sacrifice  for  sin.  A  still  larger  num- 
ber viewed  all  these  things  with  horror,  as  the  badge  of 
that  cruel  faith  which   had   lighted  the  fires  of  Smithfield, 


THE  bishops'  bible.  385 

and  drauk  the  blood  of  tlieir  nearest  relatives,  friends, 
and  neighbors,  and  of  the  faithful  ministers  of  Christ. 
While,  therefore,  the  Prelates  were  seeking  to  conceal  the 
greenness  of  their  new  church  from  the  popular  eye  under 
this  garb  of  antiquity,  and  to  soften  the  shock  of  change 
to  the  adherents  of  Popery  by  retaining  whatever  was 
possible  of  the  shows  of  the  old  faith ;  the  Nonconforming 
clergy  felt  themselves  bound,  by  the  New  Testament  law 
of  brotherly  love,  to  countenance  nothing  which  might  cause 
their  weak  brother  to  offend ;  and  claimed  that  the  church 
of  Christ  should  be  set  forth  before  the  eyes  of  the  people, 
in  sharpest  outward  contrast  with  the  church  of  Anti- 
christ.* 

Thus,  in  regard  to  every  thing  external,  the  Church 
planted  itself  at  this  crisis  on  the  Romish  ground  of  tra- 

*It  has  always  been  the  fashion  with  "liberal"  historians,  while  they 
admit  the  great  results  to  civil  freedom  from  the  position  taken  in  this  con- 
troversy by  the  Puritans,  to  sneer  at  the  jjosition  itself  as  that  of  narrow- 
minded  bigots.  Even  Mr.  Macauley  seems  not  to  have  considered,  in  refer- 
ence to  their  case,  (Hist.  Eng.,  Vol.  I,  p.  50,)  that  things  trivial  in  them- 
selves may  become  great  by  their  relations  and  bearings.  Eve's  taking  the 
apple  was  a  very  little  thing  in  itself ;  but  as  the  exponent  of  a  principle,  it 
decided  the  fate  of  a  world.  William  Tell's  refusal  to  take  off  his  hat  to 
Gesslor's  pole,  was  ar  very  little  thing  ;  but  it  marked  the  dividing  line  be- 
tween Swiss  slavery  and  Swiss  freedom.  The  Stamp  Act  was  a  very  small 
grievance ;  but  as  a  test-measure  on  the  part  of  England,  resistance  to  it 
became  the  turning-point  of  American  independence.  Of  precisely  this 
character  was  the  prescription  of  clerical  vestments,  and  of  a  certain  unalter- 
able round  of  frivolous  church  forms  ;  and  so  was  it  regarded  alike  by  thoso 
who  urged  and  those  who  refused  them.  "  Doth  your  Lordship  think,"  thus 
writes  Parker,  on  his  death-bed,  to  Lord  Burleigh,  "  that  I  care  either  for 
cap,  tippet,  surplice,  wafer-bread,  or  any  such  ?  But  for  the  law  so  estab- 
lished I  esteem  them.  For  contempt  of  Law  and  Authority  would  follow 
and  be  the  end  of  it,  unless  discipline  were  used." — Strype's  Life  of  Parker, 
p.  492. 

17 


386  THE    ENGLISH    BIBLE. 

ditioa  and  human  authority  ;  the  Puritans  took  their  posi- 
tion no  less  firmly  on  the  great  Protestant  principle, — the 
Bible  the  only  guide  of  faith  and  practice. 

Fully  awake  to  the  alarming  spirit  of  innovation  and  inde- 
pendence now  manifesting  itself  in  the  church,  the  Archbish- 
op and  his  coadjutors  in  the  Commission  immediately  pre- 
pared a  set  of  Articles  for  the  regulatioii.of  divine  service,  to 
which  universal  and  unvarying  conformity  should  be  required. 
He  then  proceeded  to  cite  many  Puritan  ministers  before  the 
Commission,  and  endeavored  by  admonitions  and  threats 
to  induce  compliance.  Sampson  and  Humphrey  were  sum- 
moned from  their  duties  at  Oxford  ;  and  after  being  de- 
tained a  year  in  attendance  at  the  court,  at  great  expense  and 
discomfort  to  themselves,  were  deprived  of -their  offices  and 
thrown  into  prison,  where  Sampson  remained  some  months. 
In  1564,  a  royal  proclamation  enjoining  uniformity  in  appa- 
rel having  been  obtained  from  the  Queen,  the  Archbishop 
took  a  still  higher  tone,  and  fell  to  the  task  of  compelling 
men  to  think  alike,  in  a  spirit  more  befitting  a  Papal  legate 
or  inquisitor  than  a  Protestant  bishop.  This  year  he  cited 
the  entire  body  of  the  pastors  and  curates  of  London,  and 
required  from  them  a  promise  and  subscription  under  their 
own  hands,  to  comply  with  the  apparel  prescribed  by  law. 
The  24th  of  March,  1564,  was  a  dark  day  to  the  London 
clergy.  No  remonstrance,  no  discussion  was  permitted. 
Beside  the  commissioners  stood  one  Robert  Coles,  (a  Lon- 
don minister  who  had  once  refused  the  habits,' but  after- 
wards conformed,)  arrayed  in  the  prescribed  vestments, 
square  cap,  tippet,  and  priest's  robe,  all  according  to  statute. 
"  My  masters  and  ye  ministers  of  London,"  said  the  Bishop's 
Chancellor,  "  the  council's  pleasure  is,  that  strictly  ye  keep 
the  unity  of  apparel  like  to  this  man  as  you  see  him ;  that 


TiiE  bishops'  bible.  387 

is,  a  square  cap,  a  scholar's  gown  priest-like,  a  tippet,' and 
in  the  church  a  linen  surplice;  and  inviolably  observe  the 
rubric  of  the  Book  of  Common  Prayer,  and  the  Queen's 
Majesty's  Injunctions  and  the  Uook  of  Convocation.  Ye 
tliat  will  subscribe,  write  Volo ;  ye  that  will  not  sub- 
scribe, write  Nolo.  Be  brief.  Make  no  words."  When 
some  of  the  unhappy  men,  many  of  whom  had  wives  and 
children  depending  for  support  on'  their  small  stipends, 
attempted  to  speak, — "Peace,  peace!"  cried  the  Chancel- 
lor. "Apparitor,  call  over  the  churches,  and  ye  masters 
answer  presently  mbpcEna  contemptus.''''  "  By  these  re- 
solute doings,"  adds  the  grave  narrator,  "  were  many  of 
the  incumbents  and  ministers  present  mightily  surprised." 
Of  the  ninety-eight,  sixty-one  were  induced,  though  with 
much  difficulty,  to  subscribe ;  and  we  cannot  doubt,  that 
of  these  many  returned  to  their  homes  with  a  heavier  load 
than  a  starving  family  on  their  hearts.  Some  cried  out  in 
the  anguish  of  their  spirits  :  "  We  are  killed  in  the  soul  of 
our  souls  for  this  pollution  of  ours  !"  Thirty-seven  stead- 
fastly refused  to  set  their  hands  to  a  lie ;  and  were  imme- 
diately suspended  from  all  exercise  of  the  ministerial  vo- 
cation, and  threatened  with  deprivation  if  they  did  not 
conform  within  three  months.  These,  by  Parker's  own 
admission,  were  the  choicest  members  of  the  London 
clergy.^ 

These  measures  were  followed  by  a  set  of  injunctions 
for  the  London  clergy,  "such,"  says  Neal,  "as  had  never 

*  Strype's  Lives  of  Archbishops  Grindal  and  Parker.  The  incidents  of 
the  above  account  are  taken  from  the  former  work,  where  they  are  most 
fully  given ;  the  number  of  ministers  present,  and  the  proportion  between 
the  subscribers  and  nonsubscribers,  from  the  latter  ;  which  being  the  later 
work,  and  the  statement  made  on  the  authority  of  Archbishop  Parker,  who 
had  the  names  before  him,  is  undoubtedly  correct. 


388  THE    ENGLISH    BIBLE, 

been'  heard  of  in  a  Protestant  kingdom  or  a  free  govern- 
ment." Every  clergyman  who  had  cure  of  souls  was  obliged 
to  swear  obedience:  "1.  To  all  the  Queen's  injunctions 
and  letters  patent ;  2.  To  all  letters  from  lords  of  the  privy 
council ;  3.  To  the  articles  and  injunctions  of  the  metro- 
politan ;  4.  To  the  articles  and  mandates  of  their  bishop, 
archdeacon,  chancellors,  somners,  receivers,  &c.,  and  in  a 
word  to  be  subject  to  the  control  of  all  their  superiors 
with  patience."  To  forestall  all  possibility  of  evading 
these  demands,  from  four  to  eight  informers  were  appoint- 
ed in  each  parish  to  watch  over  the  conformity  of  both  clergy 
and  laity,  and  give  their  testimony  accordingly,  whenever 
required. 

Could  men  with  any  conscience,  with  a  spark  of  honor 
or  self-respect,  submit  to  a  slavery  like  this  ?  Miles  Co- 
verdale  could  not  keep  his  little  living  on  these  terms ; 
but  old  and  infirm  as  he  was,  being  now  eighty  years  of 
age,  he  preferred  to  risk  the  bread  and  shelter  for  his  last 
days  rather  than'  soil  his  conscience.  But  he  felt  in  his 
soul  a  commission  as  minister  of  Christ  which  no  mortal 
could  recall;  and  he  continued,  though  with  much  fear  and 
caution,  to  preach  the  Gospel  in  and  about  London  till  near 
bis  death  in  1567.  It  had  been  determined  to  make  an 
example  of  John  Foxe,  by  way  of  striking  terror  into  his 
less  distinguished  brethren.  But  the  sturdy  old 'Puritan 
was  more  than  a  match  for  them.  When  required  to  sub- 
scribe, he  drew  his  Greek  New  Testament  from  his  pocket, 
saying :  "  To  this  will  I  subscribe,"  To  the  threat  of  de- 
privation he  replied :  "  I  have  nothing  in  the  church  but  a 
prebend  in  Salisbury,  and  much  good  may  it  do  you  if  you 
take  it  from  me."  Their  resolution  failed,  and  they  did 
not  venture  to  touch  a  man  so  dear  to  the  whole  nation  as 
the  historian  of  the  martyrs. 


i 


THE  bishops'  bible.  389 

A  letter  addressed  in  1566  by  Coverdale,  Sampson  and 
Humphrey  to  several  of  the  leading  Swiss  Reformers,  gives 
some  idea  of  the  state  of  distress  then  existing. 

"  Our  affairs,"  they  write,  "  are  not  altered  for  the  better,  but,  alas  !  are 
sadly  deteriorated.  For  it  is  now  settled  and  determined  that  an  unlea- 
vened cake  must  be  used  in  place  of  common  bread ;  that  the  communion 
must  be  received  by  the  people  on  their  bended  knees ;  that  out  of  doors 
must  be  worn  the  square  cap,  bands,  a  long  gown,  and  tippet ;  while  the 
white  surplice  and  cope  are  to  be  retained  in  divine  service.  And  those  who 
refuse  to  comply  with  these  requirements,  are  deprived  of  their  estates,  dig- 
nities, and  every  ecclesiastical  office  ;  viz.,  brethren  by  brethren  and  bishops, 
whose  houses  are,  at  this  time,  the  prisons  of  some  preachers  ;  who  are  now 
raging  against  their  own  bowels  ;  who  are  now  imposing  these  burdens  not 
only  on  their  own  persons,  but  also  on  the  shoulders  of  others  ;  and  this  too  at 
a  time  when,  in  the  judgment  of  all  learned  men,  they  ought  to  have  been 
removed  and  abolished  altogether." 

But  this  is  not  the  place  for  the  details  of  that  memora- 
ble conflict.  ^  The  brief  sketch  just  given  of  its  incipient 
stages,  exhibits  its  grounds  and  the  spirit  in  which  it  was 
conducted,  sufiiciently  for  th^  purposes  of  our  present  his- 
tory. As  was  inevitable,  the  breach  continually  widened. 
Multiplied  exactions  and  increased  rigor  on  the  one  side, 
risinw  at  length  to  a  denial  of  all  the  inborn  rights  of  man, 
freedom  of  action,  speech  and  thought,  were  met  by  increased 
firmness  of  resistance,  and  a  bold  questioning  of  the  very 
foundations  of  the  church,  from  which  the  persecuted  had 
at  first  only  differed  in  some  minor  particulars.  The 
weapons  used  by  the  two  great  parties  in  the  conflict,  were 
in  harmony  with  the  fundamental  principles  on  which  they 
had  respectively  taken  their  stand.  On  the  side  of  the 
ruling  party,  the  forcible  repression  of  discussion ;  the 
limitation  and  rigid  censorship  of  the  press  ;*  the  monopoly 

*  See  the  "Rules  and  Ordinances  made  and  set  forth  by  the  Archbishop 
of  Canterbury  and  Lords  of  the  Privy  Council,  in  the    Star  Chamber,  for 


S90  THE    ENGLISH    BIBLE. 

of  schools;*  tlie  seizure  of  pious  men  and  women  who  had 
met  quietly  to  worship  God ;  the  inquisitorial  tribunals 
which  arraigned  men  on  suspicion,  and  condemned  them 
on  their  own  forced  confessions,  or  the  testimony  of  secret 

redressing  abtises  in  Printing ;"  Strype's  Life  of  Whitgift,  Appendix,  No. 
XXIV.  By  this  extraordinary  instrument  every  printer  was  required  to 
deliver  within  ten  days  from  its  date,  an  inventory  of  the  number  of  his 
presses  and  of  all  his  implements,  on  pain  of  their  seizure  and  destruction, 
and  twelve  months'  personal  imprisonment  "without  bailor  mainprize." 
No  person  should  hereafter  set  up  a  press  anywhere  except  in  London  and 
its  suburbs,  (one  excepted  in  each  University,)  nor  within  those  limits  ex- 
cept by  leave  of  the  A  rchbishop  of  Canterbury  and  Bishop  of  London,  on  tho 
same  penalty  ;  with  the  addition  of  being  disabled  forever  from  owning  or 
managing  a  press,  or  being  connected  with  the  business  in  any  way  except 
OS  a  journeyman  for  wages.  No  person  should  continue  to  use  or  occupy  a 
press  erected  within  the  previous  six  months,  on  the  penalty  first  named. 
No  person  should  print  a  book  not  authorized  by  the  Archbishop  of  tho 
Bishop  of  London,  on  penalty  of  the  loss  of  his  instruments,  six  months'  im- 
prisonment without  bail,  and  perpetual  disability  to  exercise  or  derive  any 
benefit  from  his  trade.  No  person  should  sell,  bind,  stich,  or  sew  any  book 
not  thus  authorized  on  pain  of  three  months'  imprisonment.  All  workshops 
and  warehouses,  of  printers,  booksellers,  and  bookbinders,  and  all  private 
houses  were  to  be  open  to  search  for  books  printed  in  contrariety  to  these  or- 
dinances, and  all  persons  implicated  in  the  printing,  selling,  uttering,  bind- 
ing, stitching,  or  sewing  of  the  same,  to  be  apprehended  for  trial  before  the 
Tligh  Commission,  or  three  of  its  members,  the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury  or 
Bishop  of  London  being  one.  "  For  the  avoiding  of  the  excessive  number  of 
Printers  in  this  realm,"  it  is  made  unlawful  for  any  printer,  bookseller, 
or  bookbinder  in  London  to  keep  more  than  three  apprentices,  and 
for  the  print€i-s  at  Oxford  and  Cambridge  more  than  a  single  apprentice  at 
one  time.  Under  these  regulations,  the  Press  seemed  likely  to  become  a 
very  dutiful  handmaid  of  the  monarchy  and  priesthood  ;  but  the  result  re- 
flects little  glory  on  the  sagacity  of  those  who  devised  them. 

•vj  *  In  1591  it  was  made  a  pre-requisite  to  a  schoolmaster's  license,  that  ho 

should  take  the  oath  of  supremacy  and  subscribe  the  Articles  of  Uniformity  ; 
a  measure  "  thought  convenient,"  says  Strype,  "to  prevent  the  influence 
the  Puritans  might  have  on  the  minds  of  children."— Life  of  Whitgift, 
p.  377. 


THE    ElSIIOrs'    BIBLE.  391 

informers,*  to  prison,  exile,  mutilation  and  hanging;  take 
us  back  to  the  days  of  Henry  IV,  and  we  ask  with  a  be- 
wildered feeling,  "  Is  this  the  Reformation  ?"  On  the 
other  side,  in  the  measures  of  the  Puritans  we  recognize 
those  moral  weapons  with  which  the  victories  of  truth  have 
ever  been  won  ;  viz.,  the  calm  but  unflinching  exercise  of 
the  rights  of  conscience,  and  the  steadfast  passive  endur- 
ance of  the  penalties  thereby  incurred.  They  preached, 
they  wrote,  they  petitioned,  and  they  suffered,  through 
more  than  a  generation,  with  a  resolution  and  constancy 
which  nothing  could  subdue.  The  usual  result  followed. 
The  cause  of  the  persecuted  grew  by  being  trodden  on ; 
and  before  the  sceptre  dropped  from  the  hand  of  the  aged 
Queen,  not  only  a  majority  of  the  middle  and  lower  ranks 
and  of  the  House  of  Commons,  but  a  powerful  party  in  the 
Court  itself,  gave  their  entire  sympathy  to  the  advocates 
of  religious  freedom.  The  end  of  the  battle  was  indeed  yet 
far  ofi";  but  the  moral  convictions  of  the  nation  indicated 
with  prophetic  certainty  what  that  end  would  be. 

*  When  Udal,  a  Non-conformist  preacher,  was,  in  1590,  tried  for  his  life, 
at  the  Court  of  Assize  in  Croydon,  (having  had  a  preliminary  trial  on  the 
same  charges  before  the  Commission,  and  suffered  a  year's  imprisonment 
uncondemned,)  no  witnesses  against  him  were  brought  into  court,  but  the 
registrar  merely  swore  to  their  examinations.  When  the  prisoner,  standing 
before  his  judges  with  his  legs  in  irons,  offered  to  produce  witnesses  in  his 
defence,  he  was  told  that  '  because  the  witnesses  were  against  the  Queen's 
Majesty,  they  could  not  be  heard !"-  -Neal,  Vol.  I,  p.  191.     - 


CHAPTER    XIX, 


THE  BISHOPS'  BIBLE  CONTINUED. 

It  was  near  the  close  of  the  year  1565,  just  as  the  plans 
of  Archbishop  Parker  for  the  repression  of  dissent  were 
fully  matured,  and  he  had  fairly  entered  on  the  work  to 
which  the  remaining  ten  years  of  his  life  were  devoted,  when 
John  Bodleigh  made  his  application  to  Cecil  in  behalf  of 
the  Genevan  Version. 

With  the  events  narrated  in  the  preceding  chapter  be- 
fore the  mind,  it  is  easy  to  see  the  relations  of  the  course 
then  adopted  in  reference  to  that  version,  to  the  general 
policy  by  which  the  Primate  sought  to  secure  universal 
conformity  to  the  State  Church. 

The  Bible  "  authorized  to  be  read  in  churches,"  was 
Cranmer's  Revision,  the  Great  Bible,  so-called,  which  had 
never  been  in  high  repute  for  its  critical  accuracy,  and  was 
now  wholly  eclipsed  by  the  superior  scholarship  of  the  Gene- 
van Version.  Thelatter  was  the  Bible  of  the  Puritans.  The 
associations  <of  its  birth  were  Presbyterian.  It  stood 
forth  before  the  eyes  of  the  nation,  as  the  symbol  at  once 
of  Progress  and  of  Dissent ;  while  it  was,  at  the  same  time, 
the  most  efl&cient  agent  in  awakening  the  popular  mind  to 
the  claims  of  religion,  and  planting  therein  the  principles 


THE    bishops'    bible    CONTINUED.  393 

of  godliness  and  virtue.  And  thus  it  happened  that  just 
in  proportion  to  the  extent  of  its  usefulness,  was  it  dan- 
gerous to  the  peculiar  interests  of  the  Establishment.  A 
Popish  Bishop  in  the  Primate's  place,  would  have  laid  his 
hands  at  once  on  this  source  of  schism ;  neither  hesitating 
to  denounce  it  as  unsafe  for  the  ignorant  and  undiscrimi- 
nating  rabble,  nor  to  dispose  of  it  by  the  summary  method 
of  seizure  and  bonfires.  This  the  spirit  of  Protestantism, 
a  spirit  created  by  the  Bible  itself,  would  no  longer  allow. 
Nor  indeed  have  we  any  ground  for  supposing  that  Arch- 
bishop Parker  would  have  resorted  to  violence,  though  he 
had  been  fully  sustained  by  public  opinion.  Nevertheless, 
it  was  essential  to  his  plans  that  the  church,  which  claimed 
to  be  the  exclusive  spiritual  authority  in  the  realm,  should 
also  be  the  exclusive  spiritual  teacher.  To  her,  and  not 
to  any  rival  influence,  must  the  people  look  for  the  supply 
of  their  religious  wants,  and  for  every  privilege  which  they 
enjoyed  as  a  Christian  nation. 

To  the  Protestant  bishop,  two  courses  lay  open  for  ac- 
complishing this  object :  the  one,  by  drawing  the  Genevan 
Version  within  the  consecrated  pale,  and  stamping  it  with 
episcopal  patronage,  to  engraft  on  the  popular  favorite  as- 
sociations advantageous  to  the  church ;  the  other,  to  su- 
persede it  by  a  new  version,  emanating  directly  from  the 
church.*  The  first  was  attempted  unsuccessfully.  Mr. 
Bodleigh  did  not  accede  to  their  proposal,  of  pledging 
himself  never  to  bring  out  an  edition   without  their  "  ad- 

*  This,  probably,  was  the  ultimate  design  in  any  case.  The  Genevan 
Bible  might  be  made  to  answer  a  good  purpose,  till  the  new  version  was 
ready  to  be  "  set  forth  by  authority,"  after  which  it  would  be  at  their  own 
choice  to  suppress  it  at  once,  or  to  withdraw  it  gradually  from  public  view,  as 
should  seem  most  judicious. 

17* 


394  THE  ENGLISH  BIBLE. 

vice,  consent,  and  direction;"  and  as  the  consequence,  for 
more  than  ten  years  longer,  or  till  1576,  the  Family  Bible 
of  England  was  never  printed  on  English  ground,  and  the 
first  English  impression  immediately  followed  the  death 
of  Archbishop  Parker.*  Public  sentiment  ascribed  this 
delay,  which  of  course  much  impeded  its  circulation,  to  the 
jealousy  of  the  Bishops;-  and  it  was  thought  a  sore  griev- 
ance that  a  version  of  the  Bible,  which  could  be  charged 
with  no  fault,  should  be  thus  arbitrarily  kept  from  the 
multitudes  who  were  hungering  and  thirsting  for  its  in- 
structions. The  second  course,  that  of  preparing  a  new 
version,  was  within  the  Primate's  own  control ;  and  at  the 
time  of  Mr.  Bodleigh's  application,  measures  were  already 
in  progress  for  this  object.  The  result  appeared  in  the 
year  1568,  when  the  so-called  Bishops'  Bible  was  given 
to  the  public. 

Strype,  in  his  Life  of  Parker,  thus  speaks  of  the  design, 
and  of  the  method  pursued  in  executing  it : 

"  Among  the  noble  designs  of  this  Archbishop,  must  be  reckoned  his  re- 
solution to  have  the  Holy  Bible  set  forth,  well  translated  into  the  vulgar 
tongue,  for  private  use,  as  well  as  for  the  use  of  churches  ;  and  to  perform 
that  which  his  predecessor,  Archbishop  Cranmer,  endeavored  so  much  to 
bring  to  pass,  but  could  not,  (the  Bishops  in  his  days  being  most  of  them 
utterly  averse  to  any  such  thing)  that  is,  that  the  Bishops  should  join  to- 
gether, and  take  their  parts  and  portions  in  revising,  amending  and  setting 
forth,  the  English  translation  of  those  Holy  books.     This  our  present  Arch- 

*  Strype,  in  accounting  for  the  failure  of  Bodleigh's  application,  remarks 
somewhat  naively  :  "  Whatever  the  cause  were,  it  was  not  surely  from  any 
discouragement  the  translation  received  from  the  Bishops.  For  they,  by 
the  fore-quoted  letter,  under  their  hands,  like  and  approve  it,  and  recom- 
mend the  undertakers  to  the  Secretary,  to  procure  for  them  the  Queen's 
license  to  reprint  it.  Unless  the  reason  were  that  they  were  loth  to  sub- 
scribe to  the  terms  that  were  demanded  by  the  Bishops." — Life  of  Parker, 
p.  207. 


THE    bishops'    bible    CONTINUED.  395 

bishop's  thoughts  much  ran  upon.  And  he  had  about  this  time  (1565)  dis- 
tributed the  Bible,  divided  into  parts,  to  divers  of  his  learned  fellow-bishops, 
and  to  some  other  divines  that  were  about  him,  who  cheerfully  undertook  the 

work The  Archbishop  took  upon  him  the  labor  to  contrive  and  set 

the  whole  work  agoing  in  a  proper  method,  by  sorting  out  the  whole  Bible 
into  parcels,  as  was  said,  and  distributing  these  parcels  to  the  Bishops  and 
other  learned  men  to  peruse,  and  collate  each,  the  book  or  books  allotted 
them  ;  sending  withal  his  instructions  for  the  method  they  should  observe  ; 
and  they  to  add  some  short  marginal  notes,  for  the  illustration  or  correction 
of  the  text.  And  all  these  portions  of  the  Bible  being  finished,  and  sent 
back  to  the  Archbishop,  he  was  to  add  the  last  hand  to  them,  and  so  to  tako 
care  for  printing  and  publishing  the  whole." 


Fifteen  learned  men,  most  of  them  Bisbops,  were  em- 
ployed on  this  work.  The  precise  time  wheu  it  was  com- 
menced is  not  known  ;  but  it  could  not  have  been  later 
than  1564,  as  we  find  Sandys,  Bishop  of  Worcester,  ready 
with  his  portion  (Judges,  Kings,  and  Chronicles,)  at  the 
beginning  of  the  next  year.  In  a  letter  which  accompanied 
it,  he  urges  the  prosecution  of  the  revision  in  the  most  tho- 
rough manner ;  "  that  it  may  be  done  in  such  perfection, 
that  the  adversaries  can  have  no  occasion  to  quarrel  with 
it.  Which  thing,"  he  adds,  "  will  require  a  time.  Sed  sat 
cito,  si  sat  bene  " — [but  soon  enough,  if  well  enough.']  In 
accordance  with  this  sound  advice,  the  work  seems  to  have 
been  performed  with  praiseworthy  diligence ;  though,  from 
causes  presently  to  be  mentioned,  not' with  very  satisfac- 
tory results.     It.was  published  in  1568. 

Archbishop  Parker's  Preface  to  the  new  Bible  contains 
many  sensible  and  pious  thoughts,  and  breathes  a  liberal 
Protestant  spirit,  widely  in  contrast  with  that  displayed  iu 
his  treatment  of  Nonconformists.  The  remembrance  of 
that  treatment,  and  of  his  previous  indifference  to  the  cry 
of  the  nation  for  a  more  abundant  supply  of  the  Scriptures, 


396  THE    ENGLISH    BIBLE. 

does  indeed  nnacli  qualify  the  pleasure  with  which  we  should 
otherwise  read  it.  Had  he  felt  Cranmer's  enthusiasm  for 
the  principles  of  the  Eeformation,  and  that  its  sheet-anchor 
was  the  Bible,  his  course  would  have  been  different.  But 
it  is  too  evident  that  Episcopacy  was  still  dearer  to  hira 
than  the  Eeformation,  and  that  his  reliance  for  its  establish- 
ment was  the  sword  of  the  magistrate  rather  than  the  word 
of  God.  And  hence,  while  he  was  pursuing  "  the  precise 
brethren,'"  (his  favorite  designation  of  the  dissenters,)  with 
deadly  animosity,  silencing  faithful  preachers,  and  impris- 
oning Christian  people  who  sought  spiritual'  nourishment 
elsewhere  than  from  empty  pulpits,  or  those  filled  by  in- 
competent, worldly,  or  vicious  men,  by  his  own  confession 
''■very  many  churches  wanted  Bibks."  Nor  can  he  be 
charged  merely  with  neglect  in  this  particular,  when  his 
influence  was  employed  for  the  discouragement,  against 
the  earnest  wishes  of  the  people,  of  a  version  whose  excel- 
lencies he  could  not  deny.  Yet  with  all  these  abatements, 
we  cannot  but  rejoice  over  sentiments  like  the  following, 
from  the  pen  of  the  rigorous  Primate ;  for  they  indicate  a 
public  opinion  in  favor  of  the  Bible,  too  deeply  rooted 
and  too  full  of  life  to  be  safely  resisted  or  neglected,  by 
the  highest  in  place  and  strongest  in  power. 

"Antichrist  must  he  be,  that,  under  whatsoever  color,  would  give  contrary 
precept  or  counsel  to  that  which  Christ  did  give  us.  Very  little  do  they  re- 
eemble  Christ's  loving  spirit,  moving  us  to  search  for  our  comfort,  that  will 
discourage  us  from  such  searching,  or  that  would  wish  ignorance  or  forget- 
fulness  of  his  benefits  to  reign  in  us,  so  that  they  might,  by  our  ignorance, 
reign  the  more  frankly  in  our  consciences,  to  the  danger  of  our  salvation. 
Who  can  take  the  light  from  us  in  this  miserable  vale  of  blindness,  and  not 
mean  to  have -us  stumble,  in  the  paths  of  perdition,  to  the  ruin  of  our  souls  1 
Who  will  envy  us  this  bread  of  life,  prepared  and  set  on  the  table  for  our 
eternal  sustincnce,  and  mean  not  to  famish  us,  or  instead  thereof,  with  their 


THE    bishops'    bible    CONTINUED.  397 

corrupt  traditions  and  doctrines  of  men,  to  infect  us  7  .  .  .  .  Search,  there- 
fore, good  reader,  (in  God's  name,)  as  Christ  biddeth  thee,  the  Holy  Scrip- 
tures, wherein  thou  mayest  find  thy  salvation.  Let  not  the  volume  of  this 
book,  (by  God's  own  warrant,)  depart  from  thee  ;  but  occupy  thyself  there- 
in in  the  whole  journey  of  this  thy  worldly  pilgrimage,  to  understand  thy 
way  how  to  walk  rightly  before  Him  all  the  days  of  thy  life." 

In  reference  to  the  cavils  of  the  llomanists,  who  decried 
every  existing  translation  into  the  mother  tongue,  yet 
never  themselves  put  hand  to  the  work  of  suj-jplying  one 
which  was  more  correct,  he  makes  the  pertinent  inquiry  : 

"  What  manner  of  translation  may  men  think  to  look  for  at  their  hands, 
if  they  should  translate  the  Scriptures,  to  the  comfort  of  God's  elect,  which 
they  never  did,  nor  be  not  like  to  propose  it,  but  be  rather  studious  only  to 
seek  quarrels  in  other  men's  well-doings,  to  pick  fault  where  none  is  ;  and 
where  any  is  escaped  through  human  negligence,  then  to  cry  out  with  their 
tragical  exclamations,  but  in  no  wise  to  amend,  by  the  spirit  of  charity  and 
lenity,  that  which  might  be  more  aptly  put?" 

In  apologizing  for  thus  adding  another  translation  to 
the  many  previously  made,  he  quotes  the  words  of  Au- 
gustine, that  "  though  in  the  primitive  church  the  late  in- 
terpreters which  did  translate  the  Scriptures  be  innumer- 
able, yet  wrought  this  rather  a  help  than  an  impediment 
to  the  readers,  if  they  be  not  tQO  negligent.  For,  saith 
he,  divers  translations  have  made,  many  times,  the  harder 
and  darker  sentences  the  more  open  and  plain."  The  Arch- 
bishop pleads,  therefore,  that  no  one  should  take  offence 
at  this  new  attempt  at  translation,  inasmuch  as  it  was 
neither  intended  to  reflect  on  any  other,  or  to  claim  per- 
fection, "  as  that  hereafter  might  follow  no  other  that 
might  see  that  which  as  yet  was  not  understanded."  In 
these  remarks,  the  Archbishop  probably  had  one  eye  on 
those  who  opposed  all  change  in  the  authorized  version  as 
a  dangerous  innovation ;  and  the  otlier  on  the  Puritans, 


398 


THE    ENGLISH    BIBLE. 


whose  attachment  to  tTieIr  favorite  version  was  not  wholly 
free  from  party  prejudice,  many  of  them  being  unable,  aa 
was  said,  "  to  see  the  sense  of  Scripture,  except  through 
the  Genevan  spectacles." 

And  yet,  with  these  liberal  sentiments  on  the  face  of  his 
translation,  the  Arclibishop's  first  move  after  its  comple- 
tion, was  the  attempt  to  obtain  from  the  Queen  an  exclu- 
sive license  for  it  as  the  one  "to  be  only  commended  in 
public  reading  in  churches,  to  draw  to  one  uniformity?'^ 
This  favor  he  requests,  "  not  only  as  many  churches  want 
their  books,  but  as  that  in  certain  places  be  publicly  used 
some  translations  which  have  not  been  labored  in  this 
realm."*  In  other  words,  two  grievances  are  to  be  re- 
dressed by  her  Majesty's  countenance  of  the  new  version  ; 
the  churches  destitute  of  Bibles  are  to  be  supplied,  and 
the  churches  supplied  with  the  Genevan  version  are  to  ex- 
change them  for  the  one  furnished  and  authorized  by  her 
Majesty  and  the  Bishops. 

The  Bishops'  Bible  was,  in  some  respects,  an  advance 
on  that  of  Cranmef.  The  omission  of  the  additions  from 
the  Vulgate  was  a  marked  improvement ;  and  many  single 
passages  were  changed  for  the  better  (some  also  for  the 
worse)  by  the  substitution  of  the  Genevan  renderings. 
But  it  contributed  little  that  was  new  to  the  stock  of 
biblical  knowledge.  For  this  there  were  several  causes. 
First  and  chiefly,  the  want  of  profound  scholarship  in  the 
translators  —  learning  being  made  subordinate  to  official 
position,  in  the  selection  of  translators,  by  the  object  de- 
signed to  be  secured.  The  new  Bible  must  be  as  good  as 
Bishops  could  make  it ;  but  it  must  be  a  Bishops'  Bible. 
England  did  not  lack  for  scholars.  The  same  men  whose 
*  Parker's  Letter  to  Cecil,  quoted  in  Anderson's  Annals,  Vol.  II.  p.  333. 


THE    bishops'    EIBLE    CONTINUED.  399 

ripe  learning  had  produced  the  Genevan  version,  still  lived 
in  the  prime  and  fullness  of  their  powers,  and  there  were 
other  English  scholars  in  all  respects  their  equals.  But 
it  was  the  silent  policy  of  the  church  to  recognize  no  merit 
in  Nonconformists ;  and  unfortunately,  the  best  talent  and 
culture  of  the  realm  were  thus  buried  from  public  use. 
Another  cause  of  the  inferiority  of  the  vorsion,  was  the 
rule  laid  down  by  Archbishop  Parker,  of  deviating  as  little 
as  possible  from  the  old  authorized  version  ;  a  rule  which 
must  necessarily  produce  a  superficial  work,  whatever  may 
be  the  ability  of  the  scholars  by  whom  it  is  executed. 
To  this  rule  there  was,  indeed,  one  remarkable  exception. 
The  uniform  rendering  of  ecclesla  by  congregation,  formed 
one  of  the  characteristic  features  of  the  earlier  versions, 
and  was  accounted  of  primary  importance,  as  representing 
to  the  English  mind  the  generic  idea  of  visible  Christian- 
ity as  a  community  of  equals.  This  was  the  point  in  Tyn- 
dale's  version,  against  which  Sir  Thomas  More  directed 
his  most  powerful  batteries.  Coverdale,  though  allowing 
a  false  liberality  to  give  a  Popish  tinge  to  his  version  in 
some  other  respects,  never  deviated  in  this  from  the  Pro- 
testant principle.  Cranmer,  though  his  zeal  for  the  An- 
glican church  was  not  scrupulous  in  its  choice  of  means, 
maintained  this  feature  of  the  English  Bible  in  unimpaired 
integrity.  In  the  "  authorized  version,"  as  left  by  him 
and  found  by  Archbishop  Parker,  ccdcsia  is  rendered,  in 
every  instance  without  exception,  "  congregation."*  It 
was  therefore  a  very  bold  step,  when  the  latter  took  the 
responsibility  of  a  total  change  in  this  particular,  by  uni- 
formly displacing  "  congregation,"  and  putting  "  church" 

*  The  word  "  church"  occurs  but  once  in  Cranmer's  Bible,  and  then  aa 
the  translation  of  the  Greek  word  for  a  temple  or  sacred  edifice. 


400  THE    BNCrLISII    BIBLE. 

in  its  stead.*  Tbe  controversy  was  no  new  one  to  him. 
He  has  himself  recorded  that  this  was  one  of  the  matters 
in  debate  when  the  Synod  of  Bishops^  under  Henry  VIII., 
took  into  consideration  the  subject  of  a  new  translation. 
"  There  was  then,"  says  he,t  "  a  discussion  [in  the  Synod] 
about  the  significance  and  force  of  certain  words ;  as 
whether  Dominus  should  be  rendered  from  tbe  sacred 
writings  in  English  '  the  Lord'  or '  our  Lord ;'  and  whether 
ecclesia  should  be  translated  '  the  congregation '  or  '  the 
church ;'  also,  whether  caritas  should  be  expressed  by 
'  charity  '  or  *  love.'  "  He  knew  well  which  was  the 
Protestant  and  which  the  Romish  ground  in  this  debate. 
His  choice  of  the  latter  needs  no  explanation,  except  that 
furnished  by  the  character  of  the  rejected  word,  as  indi- 
cating the  original  democratic  constitution  of  the  Christian 
body.  The  time  had  now  come,  when  Sir  Thomas  More's 
idea  of  The  Church  was  to  be  realized  in  Protestant  Eng- 
land ;  and  the  Primate  saw,  with  Sir  Thomas,  that  this 
could  not  be  done  so  long  as  the  true  idea  still  lay  on  the 
face  of  the  vernacular  Bible.  In  this,  King  James'  Re- 
vision followed  that  of  the  Bishops ;  and  thus  the  word 
for  which  Tyndale  had  so  earnestly  contended,  the  word 
which  had  stood  on  the  sacred  page  as  an  incorruptible 
witness   against   priestly  usurpation,  was   thenceforward 

*  With  a  remarkable  exception  in  Matt.  16  :  18.  There,  the  rendermg 
of  Cranmer's  Bible  was  suffered  to  remain  unchanged — "And  I  say  also 
unto  thee  that  Ihou  art  Peter;  and  upon  this  rock  I  u-ill  build  my  congre- 
gation" The  troublesome  use  of  this  passage  by  the  rival  church  of  Rome, 
sufficiently  explains  this  silent  deviation  from  uniformity.  The  only  other 
instance  is  Hebrews  12  ;  2'i—"And  unto  the  congregation  of  thefrst  bom, 
uhich  are  icritten  in  heaven."  The  constitution  of  the  church  militant  was 
the  object  of  the  Primate's  solicitude — not  that  of  the  church  triumphant. 

t  Dc  Antiq.  Britan.  plcclf  p.  iiO.T  ;  (TTnrvard  Library  ) 


THE    bishops'    bible    CONTINUED.  401 

blotted  from  the  English  Scriptures.  In  this  feature  of 
the  Bishops'  Bible,  we  find  a  motive  for  the  undertaking, 
not  less  strong  than  the  opposition  felt  to  the  general  in- 
fluence of  the  Genevan  version.*  We  can  now  understand 
how  this  Bible,  if  established  by  authority  as  the  only  one 
to  be  publicly  read  in  churches,  might  play  an  important 
part  "  in  drawing  to  one  uniformity." 

It  was  but  natural  that  Archbishop  Parker  should  wish 
to  secure  to  the  English  Church,  (to  use  the  term  in  the 
Primate's  sense)  the  advantage  of  furnishing  the  Bible 
both  for  public  worship  and  for  the  private  use  of  the 
people.  Had  he  sought  this  object  with  a  liberality  suited 
to  "his  vast  income,  and  in  a  manner  worthy  of  so  difficult 
and  so  sacred  a  work ;  employing  the  best  scholars,  fur- 
nishing them  with  the  needed  apparatus,  and  requiring 
from  them  nothing  but  a  faithful  rendering  of  the  inspired 
original ;  the  good  and  wise  of  every  age,  and  of  every  di- 
vision of  the  Christian  body,  would  have  honored  him  as 
one  of  the  world's  benefactors.  The  savor  of  episcopal 
associations  thus  transferred  to  the  English  Bible,  would 
have  been  fairly  earned.  But  no  man,  no  church,  has  the 
right,  for  any  purpose,  to  make  God's  word  speak  diflfer- 
ently  from  itself;!  oi'  to  obscure  its  meaning  even  in  the 
smallest  particular,  to  the  common  eye.     As  the  first  Eug- 

*  The  Genevan  version  used  the  words  "church"  and  "  congregation"  in- 
terchangeably, and  with  about  equal  frequency.  This  variation  from  the 
practice  of  the  previous  versions,  had  perhaps  some  connection  with  the 
State-church  element  of  the  Presbyterianism  of  that  time  ;  but  it  at  least 
respected  the  rights  of  the  English  reader,  by  giving,  with  the  ecclesiastical 
term,  the  English  term  which  clearly  defined  and  explained  it. 

f  A  singular  example  cf  this  is  furnished  by  the  suggestion  of  Guest, 
bishop  of  Rochester:  viz.,  of  conforming  those  passages  in  the  Psalms,  quoted 
in  the  New  Testament  from  the  Septuagint,  to  the  readings  there  found, — 
"  for  the  avoiding,"  as  he  writes  to  Parker,  "  of  the  offence  that  may  rise  to 
people  upon  divers  translations."— Strype's  Life  of  Parker,  p.  208. 


402  THE    ENGLISH    BIBLE. 

llsh  version  undertaken  for  a  less  generous  object  than 
the  extension  of  truth,  and  executed  on  the  principle  of 
making  as  little  advance  as  the  requirements  of  the  age 
would  permit,  it  must  be  regarded  bj  the  true  Protestani 
rather  with  regret  than  satisfaction. 

In  1572,  a  revised  edition  of  the  Bishops'  Bible  was 
published,  to  which  Lawrence,  a  Greek  scholar  celebrated 
for  his  critical  accuracy,  contybuted  a  number  of  emenda- 
tions.* In  1584,  under  Archbishop  Whitgift,  the  readings 
from  the  Vulgate,  omitted  by  the  first  revisers,  but  which 
had  been  retained  unmarked  in  the  Book  of  Common 
Prayer,  were  replaced  in  the  Bishops'  Bible.  It  was  im- 
portant to  the  Church  that  her  Bible  and  her  Liturgy 
should  show  no  disagreement ;  and  since  the  latt^  could 
not  be  altered  without  the  concurrence  of  the  Queen  and 
Parliament,  the  old  readings  were  quietly  slipped  back 
into  the  Bible;  and,  in  order  to  complete  the  uniformity, 
they  were  left  unmarked  as  in  the  Prayer  Book.  Seven- 
teen of  these  interpolations  occur  in  the  Book  of  Psalms, 
one  of  them  (in  Ps.  xiv.)  including  three  entire  verses. 
This  is  the  most  remarkable  instance  of  deliberate  impo- 
sition, found  in  the  history  of  Protestant  Bible  Translation. 

This  version  passed  through  twenty-nine  editions,  most 
of  them  folios  and  quartos  for  public  religious  service, 
during  the  reign  of  Elizabeth ;  and  it  continued  to  hold 
its  place  in  King  James'  reign,  while  his  revision  was  in 
preparation.  A  few  small-sized  editions  were  printed  for 
use  in  families  ;  but  it  never  became  a  popular  favorite. 
The  last  edition  appeared  in  1608;  and  three  years  .after, 
it  was  superseded,  as  the  Bible  of  Churches,  by  the  Com- 
mon Version, 

*  A  liat  of  these  is  given  by  Strype,  in  the  Ai^pendix  to  the  Life  of  Parker. 


CHAPTER  XX. 


THE  RHEMISII,  OR  DOUAY  BIBLE. 

The  year  1582  witnessed  a  phenomenon  in  the  history 
of  English  Bible  translation;  viz.,  a  version  of  the  New 
Testament  emanating  from  the  Romish  church.  This  was 
not,  however,  the  result  of  any  chango  of  principle  in  that 
venerable  institution  in  regard  to  vernacular  translation 
and  the  use  of  the  Bible  among  the  laity ;  but  merely  a 
change  of  policy  suited  to  the  exigencies  of  the  time.  The 
work  was  executed  by  several  English  Catholics,  all  of 
whom  had  once  been  connected  with  the  University  of 
Oxford,  but  who,  on  Elizabeth's  accession,  had  fled  to  the 
continent  and  found  refuge  in  the  Romish  seminaries  of 
Douay  and  Rheims.  In  their  preface  they  explicitly  de- 
clare : 

"  That  they  do  not  publish  it  upon  an  erroneous  opinion  of  its  being 
necessary  that  the  Holy  Scriptures  should  always  be  in  our  mother-tongue, 
or  that  they  ought  to  be  read  indifferently  of  all,  or  could  be  easily  under- 
stood of  every  one  that  reads  or  hears  them  in  a  known  language  ;  or  that 
they  generally  or  absolutely  judged  it  more  convenient  in  itself  or  more 
agreeable  to  God's  word  and  honor,  or  the  edification  of  the  faithful,  to  have 
them  turned  into  vulgar  tongues,  than  to  be  kept  and  studied  only  in  the  ec- 
clesiastical languages.  Eut  they  translated  this  sacred  book  upon  special 
consideration  of  the  present  time,  state  and  condition  of  their  country,  unto 
which  divers  things  were  either  necessary  or  profitable  and  medicinablo 
now,  that  otherwise,  in  the  peace  of  the  church  were  neither  much  requi- 
site, nor  perchance,  wholly  tolerable." 


404  THE    ENGLISH    BIBLE. 

With  regretful  fondness,  they  look  back  to  the  happy 
days  of  the  primitive  church,  when,  as  they  maintain,  "  it 
was  not  permitted  even  to  those  who  understood  the 
learned  languages  wherein  the  Scriptures  were  written,  to 
read,  reason,  dispute,  turn  and  toss  the  Scriptures  ;  nor 
might  every  schoolmaster  that  had  a  little  Greek  and 
Latin,  straight  take  in  hand  the  holy  Testament ;  nor  were 
the  translated  Bibles  put  into  the  hands  of  every  husband- 
man, artificer,  prentice,  boys,  girls,  mistress,  maid  and 
man."  In  those  good  times,  the  Bible  was  kept  "  in  libra- 
ries, monasteries,  colleges,  churches,  in  Bishops',  priests', 
and  some  other  devout  principal  laymen's  houses  and  hands ; 
and  the  poor  ploughman,  while  tilling  the  ground,  could 
sing  the  hymns  and  psalms  either  in  known  or  unknown 
tongues,  as  they  heard  them  in  holy  church,  though  they 
could  neither  read,  nor  knew  the  sense,  meaning  and  mys- 
teries of  the  same." 

It  cannot  be  claimed  that  the  Rhemish  and  Douay  trans- 
lators represent,  in  this  respect,  merely  the  "  obscu- 
rantists" of  the  Romish  church.  The  most  distinguished 
members  of  her  communion,  illustrious  by  their  own 
scholarship  and  by  their  zealous  promotion  of  learning 
among  the  clergy,  have  spoken  the  same  language  in  every 
age.  We  have  already  remarked  this  in  regard  to  Cardi- 
nal Wolsey  and  Sir  Thomas  More.  An  equally  striking 
instance  is  furnished  by  the  policy  of  Cardinal  Ximenes, 
after  the  conquest  and  "  conversion  "  of  Granada.  Tala- 
vcra,  the  benevolent  Bishop  of  the  subjugated  province, 
had  much  at  heart  the  completion  of  a  translation  of  the 
Scriptures  into  the  vulgar  Arabic  for  circulation  among 
the  Moorish  converts.  This  purpose  was  sternly  overruled 
by  his  superior.      "  It  would  be  throwing  pearls  before 


THE    RHEMISH    OR    DOUAY    BIBLE.  405 

swine,"  said  Ximenes  in  reply  to  Talavera's  arguments, 
"  to  open  the  Scriptures  to  persons  in  their  low  state  of 
ignorance,  who  could  not  fail,  as  St.  Paul  says,  to  wrest 
them  to  their  own  destruction.  The  word  of  God  should 
be  wrapped  in  discreet  mystery  from  the  vulgar,  who  feel 
little  reverence  for  what  is  plain  and  obvious.  It  was  for 
this  reason  that  our  Saviour  himself  clothed  his  doctrines 
in  parables,  when  he  addressed  the  people.  The  Scrip- 
tures should  be  confined  to  the  three  ancient  languages, 
which  God,  with  mystic  import,  permitted  to  be  inscribed 
over  the  head  of  his  crucified  Son ;  and  the  vernacular 
should  be  reserved  for  such  devotional  and  moral  treatises 
as  holy  men  indite,  in  order  to  quicken  the  soul  and  turn 
it  from  the  pursuit  of  worldy  vanities  to  heavenly  contem- 
plation."* 

And  this  was  the  man  who  founded  and  endowed  the 
University  of  Alcala,  for  the  education  of  the  Spanish 
clergy ;  who  projected  that  splendid  monument  of  sacred 
learning,  the  Complutensian  Polyglott,  and  defrayed  the 
enormous  expenses  of  the  undertaking  out  of  his  own  in- 
come !  The  aim  in  these  and  similar  labors  in  the  Romish 
Church,  was  to  increase  and  consolidate  the  power  of  the 
priesthood,  by  raising  it  to  an  unapproachable  height  above 
the  laity.  « 

In  what  then  consisted  the  necessity  for  so  striking  a 
deviation  from  the  immemorial  policy  of  the  church,  as  the 
publication  of  the  New  Testament  for  general  distribution 
in  the  vulgar  tongue  ?  This  the  translators  explain  with 
equal  frankness.  It  was  the  spreading  poison  of  Pro- 
testant VERSIONS ;    wherein,  as   they  affirm,   God's  law 

*  Prescott's  History  of  Ferdinand  and  Isabella,  ch.  VI,  last  p.  Note ;  and 
Hefele,  Der  Cardinal  Ximenes,  S-  63. 


406  THE   ENGLISH   BIBLE. 

and  testament  and  Christ's  written  will  and  word  are  cor 
rupted  both  in  letter  and  sense,  in  order  to  make  thenx 
agree  with  the  false  doctrines  of  their  new  religion.  They 
say: 

"  In  pure  compassion,  therefore,  to  see  their  beloved  countrymen  with  ex- 
treme danger  of  their  souls,  to  use  only  such  profane  translations  and  erro- 
neous men's  mere  fancies,  and  being  also  much  moved  thereto  by  the  de- 
sires of  many  devout  persons,  they  had  set  forth  the  New  Testament  trust- 
ing that  it  migEt  give  occasion  to  them,  after  diligently  perusing  it,  to  lay 
away  at  least  such  their  impure  versions  as  hitherto  they  had  been  forced 
to  use.  .  .  .  They  had  also  set  forth  reasonable  large  Annotations,  thereby 
to  shew  the  studious  reader,  in  most  places  pertaining  to  the  controversies 
of  the  time,  both  the  heretical  corruptions  and  false  deductions,  and  also  the 
apostolic  tradition,  the  expositions  of  the  holy  fathers,  the  decrees  of  the 
Catholic  church  and  most  ancient  councils." 

Thirty  years  after,  1609 — 10,  the  version  was  comple- 
ted by  the  publication  at  Douay  of  the  Old  Testament, 
•which  had  all  this  time  been  delayed  by  want  of  the  neces- 
sary pecuniary  means, — no  very  flattering  index  of  the 
zeal  of  the  infallible  church  for  the  diffusion  of  the  Scrip- 
tures, 

The  principles  observed  in  the  preparation  of  their  work, 
were  worthy  of  the  motives  from  which  it  was  undertaken. 
It  was  made  from  the  Latin  Vulgate,  in  preference  to  the 
Greek  and  Hebrew  Scriptures.  "  The  Latin,"  they  said, 
"was  most  ancient;  it  was  corrected  by  St.  Jerome,  com- 
mended by  St.  Augustine,  and  used  and  expounded  by  the 
Fathers ;  the  holy  council  of  Trent  had  declared  it  to  be 
authentical ;  it  was  the  gravest,  sincerest,  of  greatest  ma-, 
jesty,  and  the  least  partiality ;  and  in  regard  to  the  New 
Testament,  was  exact  and  precise  according  to  the  Greek; 
preferred  by  Beza  himself  to  all  other  translations,  and 
was  truer  than  the  vulgar  Greek  text  itself."     This  last 


THE    RHEMISH    OR    DOUAY    BIBLE.  407 

pretension,  ■wbich  might  have  been  made  with  reason  in  re- 
ference to  the  original  text  of  the  Vulgate,  (whose  date  was 
older  by  several  centuries  than  the  Greek  manuscripts  then 
in  the  possession  of  Protestant  scholars,)  became  ridiculous 
when  applied  to  those  modern  copies  of  it,  which  embodied 
the  mistakes  and  corruptions  of  its  successive  monkish 
transcribers  through  more  than  a  thousand  years.  Many 
attempts  had  been  made  for  its  restoration,  but  with  con- 
fessedly little  success.  In  1589,  Pope  Sixtus  V.  made  a 
very  earnest  effort  for  this  purpose  ;  and  published  an  edi 
tion  prefaced  by  a  bull  declaring  it  to  be  "true,  lawful, 
authentic,  and  undoubted."  The  vei-y  next  Pope  sup- 
pressed this  edition  as  inaccurate  ;  and  his  successor  sent 
forth  in  1592  another  edition,  not  only  varying  from  it, 
but  absolutely  contrary  to  it,  in  many  points.  Such  was 
the  text  to  which  the  Rhemish  and  Douay  translators  ap- 
pealed, as  the  infallible  representative  of  the  inspired 
word. 

Another  characteristic  feature  of  the  work  was  the 
transfer  of  a  multitude  of  words  and  phrases,  untranslated, 
which  by  long  usage  had  acquired  a  specific  application  to 
the  doctrines,  ceremonies,  and  discipline  of  the  Romish 
Church.  These,  in  their  own  words,  "they  kept  exactly, 
as  catholic  terms."  Many  others  also  were  retained,  ap- 
parently for  the  purpose  of  throwing  an  air  of  mystery  over 
the  Scriptures,  as  too  profound  and  sacred  to  be  under- 
stood by  the  common  reader. 

No  more  convincing  evidence  could  be  asked,  of  the 
triumph  of  the.  great  principle  of  Protestantism  in  Eng- 
land, than  the  version  thus  forced  from  the  reluctant  hand 
of  the  Romish  Church.  It  was  not  till  an  overwhelming 
public  opinion  demanded  the  free  use  of  the  Scriptures  aa 


408  THE    ENGLISH    BIBLE. 

the  right  of  every  individual,  without  respect  to  class  or 
condition ;  not  till  the  sacred  word  was,  as  these  transla- 
tors conceded,  in  every  man's  hands  in  England,  did  she 
step  forward,  and  with  this  shadow  of  a  Bible  seek  to  tempt 
them  from  the  reality. 

The  subsequent  history  of  the  Douay  Bible  is  in  full 
keeping  with  its  origin.  Were  even  so  imperfect  and  cor- 
rupt a  version  freely  circulated  among  the  Catholic  masses 
speaking  the  English  tongue,  there  would  soon  be  witnessed 
among  them  the  evidences  of  a  new  intellectual  and  reli- 
gious life.  But  its  office  has  ever  been,  and  so  continues 
in  the  present  day,  to  stand  as  a  barrier  between  them  and 
the  dreaded  Protestant  versions ;  while  between  them  and 
itself  is  interposed  the  general  influence  of  the  priesthood, 
and  the  secret  inquisition  of  the  confessional. 


CHAPTER  XXI. 


THE  COMMON  VERSION. 

The  four  or  five  years  preceding  the  death  of  Elizabeth, 
had  witnessed  a  partial  lull  in  the  great  contest  between 
the  Establishment  and  the  Puritans.  This  was  the  effect 
of  several  causes;  none  of  which,  however,  contained  the 
presage  of  permanent  peace.  The  Queen,  now  yielding 
to  the  infirmities  of  age,  could  no  longer  maintain  her  pre- 
rogative over  Church  and  State  with  the  spirit  and  efficiency 
of  former  days.  Archbishop  Whitgift  also,  who  had  pro- 
claimed *'  war  to  the  knife"  with  Nonconformists,  on  his 
elevation  to  the  Primacy  in  1583,  and  whose  administra- 
tion made  that  of  Parker  seem  moderate  and  humane,  was 
beginning  to  feel  the  weight  of  years.  Meanwhile,  the  un- 
wise and  illegal  severity  of  their  measures  bad  produced 
a  corresponding  reaction  in  public  sentiment,  which  now 
affected  all  classes  of  society.  It  was  no  longer  mere  pop- 
ular sympathy  with  the  persecuted.  The  most  thoughtful 
and  far-sighted  statesmen  beheld  with  alarm  the  encroach- 
ments of  a  priesthood,  who,  through  their  vast,  undefined, 
ecclesiastical  powers,   and  their  coalition  with   the  Star 

18 


410  THE    ENGLISH   BIBLE 

Chamber,  had  almost  monopolized  the  administration  of 
justice,  and  left  to  British  subjects  little  more  of  liberty 
than  the  name.  The  courts  of  common  law,  provoked  to 
resistance  by  long  aggressions  on  their  jurisdiction,  now 
learned  to  check  the  action  of  the  episcopal  courts,  and  of 
the  High  Commission,  by  writs  of  prohibition,  which  could 
only  be  set  aside  by  a  tedious  legal  process,  sometimes 
protracted  through  several  years.  This  invasion  of  their 
prescriptive  rights  was  hotly  resented  by  the  bishops  ;  but 
in  spite  of  their  best  endeavors,  "  the  evil,"  says  Strype, 
"increased  more  and  more."*  Thus,  in  various  ways,  was 
the  hierarchy  crippled  for  the  time,  and  disabled  from  that 
unrestrained  use  of  its  weapons  to  which  it  had  been  so 
long  accustomed. 

But  that  which  contributed  most  of  all  to  this  state  of 
comparative  quiet,  was  the  near  prospect  of  a  Puritan  sov- 
ereign on  the  throne  of  England.  James  VI.  of  Scot- 
land, Elizabeth's  expected  heir,  had  been  educated  a  Pres- 
byterian. He  bad  publicly  subscribed  with  his  own  hand 
the  Solemn  League  and  Covenant,!  and  on  several  occa- 
sions had  reaffirmed  his  attachment  to  its  principles.  A 
marked  instance  of  the  kind  had  been  witnessed  in  the 
General  Assembly  at  Edinburgh,  in  1590  ;|  "  when,  stand- 
ing with  his  bonnet  off,  and  his  hands  lifted  up  to  heaven, 
'  he  praised  God  that  he  was  born  in  the  time  of  the  light 
of  the  Gospel,  and  in  such  a  place  as  to  be  king  of  such  a 
church,  the  sincerest  [purest]  kirk  in  the  world.  The 
church  of  Geneva,'  said  he,  '  keep  Pasche  and  Yule  ;  what 
have  they  for  them  ?  They  have  no  institution.  As  for 
our  neighbor  kirk  of  England,  their  service  is  an  evil-said 

*  Life  of  Whitgift,  Book  IV.  Ch.  xxvi.  f  Neal,  Part  I.  Ch.  viii. 

t  Neal,  Part  II.  Ch.  i. 


THE    COMMON    VERSION.  411 

Mass  in  English  ;  they  want  nothing  of  the  Mass  but  the 
liftings.  I  charge  you,  my  good  ministers,  doctors,  elders^ 
nobles,  gentlemen,  and  barons,  to  stand  to  your  purity, 
and  to  exhort  the  people  to  do  the  same ;  and  I,  forsooth, 
as  long  as  I  brook  my  life,  shall  maintain  the  same.'" 

While  therefore  the  Puritans,  secure,  as  they  supposed, 
of  a  speedy  change  in  the  government  •which  would  make 
them  the  administration  party,  were  content  silently  to 
"bide  their  time;"  the  bishops,  dreading  the  reckoning 
which  was  to  come,  were  quite  willing  to  abstain  from  acts 
which  might  make  a  case,  now  sufficiently  bad,  quite  irre- 
trievable. "  For  indeed,"  says  Strype,  "  he  [the  Arch- 
bishop] and  some  of  the  bishops,  particularly  the  Bishop 
of  London,*  feared  much  that  when  this  king  came  to 
reign  in  this  realm,  he  would  favor  the  New  Discipline, 
and  make  alterations  in  the  ecclesiastical  government  and 
liturgy."!  The  hopes  of  the  one  party  and  the  fears  of  the 
other,  both  of  which  seemed  so  justly  founded,  were  des- 
tined to  a  signal  disappointment. 

In  1603,  the  long  career  of  the  great  Queen  was  closed 
by  death,  and  the  Scotch  King  succeeded  to  the  English 
throne,  under  the  title  of  James  I.  All  eyes  were  now 
turned  to  the  new  monarch  ;  and  his  first  movements  were 

*  Richard  Bancroft,  who  had  been  raised,  in  1597,  by  the  strenuous  ef- 
forts of  AVhitgift,  to  the  bishopric  of  London,  owed  the  favor  of  that  prelato 
to  his  long  and  active  opposition  to  the  Puritans.  For  many  years  previous 
he  had  been  the  Primate's  right  hand  man,  in  all  measures  for  the  suppres- 
sion of  that  obnoxious  party,  and  even  surpassed  him  in  the  violence  and 
cruelty  of  his  proceedings.  Since  his  elevation  to  the  see  of  London,  Whit- 
gift's  increasing  age  had  thrown  on  Bancroft  the  active  duties  of  the  Primacy, 
and  placed  him  foremost  in  the  conflict.  Ho  had,  therefore,  more  than  any 
other  man,  reason  to  dread  the  expected  new  order  of  things. 

+  Life  of  Whitgift,  p.  5G0. 


412  THE    ENGLISH    BIBLE. 

awaited  by  both  parties  with  breathless  interest.  Messen- 
gers were  promptly  despatched  by  both  into  Scotland,  to 
off6r  their  congratulations  and  assurances  of  loyalty,  and 
to  bespeak  the  royal  favor  to  their  respective  interests. 
His  reply  to  the  bishops,  that  he  would  uphold  the  gov- 
ernment of  the  late  Queen  as  she  left  it,  somewhat  revived 
their  courage.  But  he  was  also  gracious  to  the  agents 
of  the  Puritans.  And  thus,  while  he  refrained  from  com- 
mitting himself  to  any  definite  policy,  each  party  was 
flattered  with  the  idea  of  standing  highest  in  his  favor. 
Unsuspected  by  both,  James  had  an  object  in  view,  to 
which  the  settlement  of  the  quarrel  between  the  Prelates 
and  the  Puritans,  in  itself  considered,  was  to  him  a  mere 
trifle.  Provided  only  his  Prerogative  were  secured  by  the 
decision,  he  cared  not  which  triumphed;  and  to  form  a 
judgment  on  this  point,  required  time  for  personal  obser- 
vation. During  several  months  succeeding  his  accession, 
he  was  engaged  in  a  royal  progress  through  his  new  do- 
minions; and  though  apparently  absorbed  in  amusement,  he 
diligently  used  the  opportunity  for  watching  the  character 
and  tendencies  of  the  rival  parties.  Meanwhile,  the  war 
of  opinion  had  broken  out  with  renewed  violence ;  and  the 
measures  and  publications,  proceeding  from  both  sides,  de- 
veloped still  more  palpably  their  characteristic  views  and 
aims. 

James  was  at  length  ready  to  take  a  definitive  position. 
On  the  24th  of  October,  a  proclamation,  issued  under  the 
royal  seal,  appointed  a  meeting  of  leading  Churchmen  and 
Puritans,  for  discussing  the  ecclesiastical  aifairs  of  the 
kingdom.  Thus  originated  the  celebrated  Hampton  Court 
Conference. 

The  terms  of  the  proclamation  Itft  no  room  to  doubt 


THE    COMMON    VERSION.  413 

of  his  Majesty's  decision  to  support  the  Established  Church ; 
while  the  insulting  arrogance  of  his  tone  towards  the  Pu- 
ritans, his  prohibition  to  them  of  all  freedom  of  speech  or 
of  the  press,  and  even  of  the  right  to  join  together  in  peti- 
tioning their  sovereign  on  points  of  vital  interest,  taught 
them  what  treatment  to  expect  in  the  appointed  interview. 
The  arrangements  for  the  meeting  corresponded  to  the 
style  of  the  proclamation.  Sixteen  dignitaries  of  The 
Church,  of  whom  nine  were  bishops,  were  designated  to 
represent  the  prelatical  party ;  while  only  four  Puritan 
ministers,  and  those  selected  by  the  King,  were  allowed  to 
appear  on  the  other  side. 

On  Saturday,  the  14th  of  January,  1604,  the  Conference 
held  its  first  session.  To  this  the  Puritan  ministers  were 
not  admitted.  In  Dr.  Barlow's  account  of  the  Conference, 
drawn  up  by  order  of  the  Archbishop,*  the  occurrences  of 

*  "  The  sum  and  substance  of  the  Conference  which  it  pleased  his  ex- 
cellent Majesty  to  have  with  the  Lords  Bishops  and  other  of  his  clergy 
(whereat  the  most  of  the  Lords  of  the  Council  were  present)  in  his  Ma- 
jesty's Privy  Chamber  at  Hampton  Court,  Jan.  14th,  1603  [4.J  Contracted 
by  William  Barlow,  Doctor  of  Divinity,  and  Dean  of  Chester;"  301  pp. 
small  octavo.  It  is  of  this  document  that  Strype  says  in  his  Life  of  Whit- 
glft,  p.  571 :  "  But  that  the  very  truth  might  appear  [of  the  occurrences  in 
the  Hampton  Court  Conference],  there  was  an  authentic  relation  of  it,  writ- 
ten by  one  of  the  Divines  there  present,  viz..  Barlow.  Dean  of  Chester ;  and 
that  by  the  Archbishop's  own  order,  imposing  this  worli  upon  him.  Which  then 
we  may  conclude  to  have  been  carefully  revised  by  himself.  And  that  it 
might  be  more  exact  and  complete,  it  was  compared  and  enlarged  by  the 
writer  (before  it  was  published),  with  the  Notes  and  copies  of  the  Bishop  of 
London,  the  Deans  of  Christ's  Church,  Winchester  and  Windsor,  and  the 
Archdeacon  of  Nottingham." 

The  quotations  from  this  tract,  which  has  now  become  rare,  have  been 
made  for  the  present  worls  from  the  copy  in  the  Harvard  University  Library. 
It  has  been  accused  of  unfairness  in  representing  the  conduct  of  the  Puritan 
divines  at  the  Conference  ;  its  source  leaves  no  room  to  suspect,  that  Jamea 
and  the  prelates  are  not  presented  in  the  most  favorable  light. 


414  THE    ENGLISH    BIBLE. 

the  first  morning  are  stated  as  follows.  "  AH  the  deans 
and  doctors  attending  my  Lords  the  Bishops  into  the  pre- 
sence-chamber, there  we  found  sitting  upon  a  form,  Dr. 
Reynolds,  Dr.  Sparkes,  Mr.  Knewstubbs,  and  Mr.  Chad- 
crton,  agents  for  the  Millene  PlaintiflPs.*  The  Bishops 
entering  the  Privy  Chamber,  stayed  there,  till  command- 
ment came  from  his  Majesty  that  none  of  any  sort  should 
be  present,  but  only  the  Lords  of  the  Privy  Council,  and 
the  Bishops  with  five  Deans,  [naming  them,]  who  being 
called  in,  the  door  was  close  shut  by  my  Lord  Chamber- 
lain." 

The  indignity  thus  put  upon  the  reform  party  was  fol- 
lowed by  a  meeting  of  the  King  and  the  Bishops,  in  which 
they  came  to  a  perfect  mutual  understanding.  It  was 
opened  by  the  King  in  an  oration  an  hour  long,  whose 
key  note  was  the  sentiment  expressed  in  the  first  sentence, 
that  "  Religion  is  the  soul  of  a  kingdom,  and  Unity  the  life 
of  religion."  It  contained  very  severe  reflections  on  that 
portion  of  the  clergy  who,  by  opposing  conformity  to  the 
established  doctrine  and  discipline,  had  bred  dissensions 
now  amounting  almost  to  a  schism, — "  a  point,"  says  the 
royal  orator,  "  most  perilous  to  the  common  weal  as  to  the 
Church."  They  then  proceeded  to  a  consideration  of  the 
complaints  against  the  Book  of  Common  Prayer,  as  well 
as  of  alleged  abuses  in  the  administration  of  the  service 
and  discipline  of  the  Church ;  which  ended  in  an  order 
from  the  King,  for  a  few  verbal  alterations  in  the  titles  of 
certain  portions  of  the  Prayer  Book,  "  not,"  as  he  re- 
marked, "  in  the  body  of  the  sense,  and  by  way  rather  of 

*  In  allusion  to  the  so-called  Millenary  Petition,  signed  by  750  Puritan 
ministers,  and  presented  to  the  King  soon  after  his  arrival  in  England, 
praying  for  a  reformation  in  the  Church. 


THE    COMMON    VERSION.  415 

some  explanation,  than  of  any  alteration  at  all."*  His 
Majesty  did  not  allow  the  session  to  close  without  assuring 
the  Bishops  that  "  howsoever  he  lived  among  Puritans,  and 
was  kept  for  the  most  part  as  a  ward  under  them ;  yet, 
since  he  was  of  the  age  of  his  son,  ten  years  old,  he  ever 
disliked  their  opinions.  As  the  Saviour  of  the  world  said, 
*  Though  he  lived  among  them,  he  was  not  of  them.'  "f 

On  Monday,  the  second  day  of  the  Conference,  the  Pu- 
ritan ministers  were  called  into  the  Council  Chamber,  (the 
Bishops  of  London  and  Winchester  being  there  already,) 
and  after  them  all  the  Deans  and  Doctors  present  which 
had  been  summoned.  On  this  occasion,  in  the  words  of 
the  Bishop  of  Durham, |  his  highness  used  more  short  and 
round  speech."  For  five  hours  these  learned  and  virtuous 
men,  (one  of  them.  Dr.  Reynolds,  a  distinguishied  Professor 
in  the  University  of  Oxford),  were  obliged  to  submit  to  a 
brow-beating  from  the  king  and  prelates,  which  reflects  deep 
disgrace  on  the  cause  that  could  need  or  use  such  weapons. 

Mr.  Knewstubbs  having  taken  exceptions  to  the  cross  in 
baptism,  on  account  of  the  oifence  to  weak  brethren,  the 
King  replied  :^S  "  IIow  long  will  such  brethren  be  weak  ? 
Are  not  forty-five  years  sufiicient  for  them  to  grow  strong 
in  ?  Besides,  who  pretends  this  weakness  ?  We  require 
not  subscription  of  laics  and  idiots,  but  of  preachers  and 
ministers,  who  are  not  still,  I  trow,  to  be  fed  with  milk, 
being  enabled  to  feed  others.     Some  of  them  are  strong 

*  Strype's  Life  of  Whitgift,  Appendix  No.  XLV :  Letter  from  the  Bishop 
of  Durham,  to  the  ArclMshop  of  York,  giving  an  account  of  the  Hampton 
Court  Conference. 

f  Barlow's  account  of  tho  first  session  of  tho  Conference,  closing  para- 
graph. 

J  Letter,  &c.,  as  just  quoted. 

§  Fuller,  Ch.  Hist.  Vol.  Ill,  p.  186. 


416  THE    ENGLISH    BIBLE, 

enough,  if  not  headstrong ;  conceiving  themselves  able  to 
teach  who  last  spake  for  them,  and  all  the  bishops  in  the 
land." 

To  the  farther  enquiry  of  Mr.  Knewstubbs,  whether  the 
church  were  competent  thus  to  add  to  the  ordinance  of 
Christ,  and  how  far  her  authority  is  binding  in  such  cases,  his 
Majesty  answered  with  great  warmth  :  "  I  will  not  argue 
that  point  with  you,  but  answer  as  kings  in  parliament,  Le 
roi  s'  avisera.  This  is  like  Mr.  John  Black,  a  beardless 
boy,  who  told  me  the  last  Conference  in  Scotland,  that  he 
would  hold  conformity  with  his  Majesty  in  matters  of  doc- 
trine, but  every  man  for  ceremonies  was  to  be  left  to  his 
own  liberty.  But  I  will  have  none  of  that.  I  will  have 
one  doctrine  and  one  discipline,  one  religion  in  substance 
and  in  ceremony.  And,  therefore,  I  charge  you  never  speak 
more  to  that  point, — how  much  you  are  bound  to  obey, — 
when  the  church  hath  ordained  it."* 

Dr.  Reynolds  objected  to  the  apocryphal  books,  instanc- 
ing, among  other  errors,  Ecclcsiasticus  48  :  10.  On  this 
his  Majesty  said,t  "  with  a  pleasant  apostrophe  to  the 
Lords :  What,  trow  ye,  makes  these  men  so  angry  with 
Ecclcsiasticus  ?  By  my  soul  I  think  he  was  a  Bishop,  or 
else  they  would  never  use  him  so  !" 

Upon  a  proposition  by  Dr.  Reynolds,  that  the  inferior 
country  clergy  might  be  permitted  to  meet  together  at 
stated  times  for  the  discussion  of  theological  subjects,:}: 

*  Barlow,  p.  70.  f  Ibid,  p.  62. 
I  Similar  exercises  under  the  name  of  prophesyings  had  been  established 
by  Grindal  when  Bishop  of  London,  with  a  view  to  promote  among  the  cler- 
gy of  his  diocese  the  spirit  of  preaching,  which  had  almost  died  out  in  the 
church.  They  were  peremptorily  suppressed  by  Elizabeth  as  savoring  too 
much  of  the  New  Disciphne,  and  Grindal's  revival  of  them,  as  Archbishop, 
cost  him  the  forfeiture  of  the  royal  favor,  suspension  from  his  office  and 


THE   COMMON   VERSION.  417 

James  broke  fortli :  "  If  you  aim  at  a  Scottisli  Presbytery, 
it  agreeth  as  well  with  monarchy  as  God  and  the  devil. 
Then  Jack,  and  Tom,  and  Will,  and  Dick,  shall  meet  and 
censure  me  and  my  council.  Therefore,  I  say  again,  Le 
roi  s'  avisera.  Stay,  I  pray  you,  one  seven  years,  and 
then  if  you  find  me  grow  pursy  and  fat,  I  may  per- 
chance hearken  unto  you ;  for  that  government  will  keep 
me  in  breath  and  give  me  work  enough."  He  then  put 
the  question  to  Dr.  Keynolds,  whether  he  knew  of  any 
"  who  liked  the  2)Tesent  government  ecclesiastical  and  dis- 
liked his  siqnemac^j  .?  On  his  answering  that  he  knew  of 
none  such,  the  King  proceeded  to  relate  his  own  and  his 
mother's  experience  with  the  Scotch  Reformers,  who  cried 
up  the  supremacy  of  the  monarch  till  the  Popish  bishops 
were  put  down,  and  then,  "  being  illuminated  with  more 
light,"  as  they  professed,  took  in  hand  the  supremacy  also.* 
Then  touching  his  hat  to  the  bishops,  he  added  :t  "  My 
Lords  the  Bishops,  I  may  thank  you  that  these  men  do 
thus  plead  for  my  supremacy.  They  think  they  cannot 
make  their  party  good  against  you  but  by  appealing  unto 
it,  as  if  you  or  some  that  adhere  unto  you,  were  not  well 
aflfected  towards  it.  But  if  once  you  were  out  and  they  iu 
place,  I  know  what  would  become  of  my  supremacy.  No 
Bishop,  no  King,  as  I  before  said.  Neither  do  I  thus 
speak  at  random,  without  ground ;  for  I  have  observed 
since  my  coming  into  England,  that  some  preachers  before 

banishment  from  Court,  which  liarsh  treatment  broke  the  old  man's  heart. 
Freedom  of  thought  was  discouraged,  no  less  among  the  inferior  clergy  than 
among  the  laity. — See  Strype's  Life  of  Archb.  Grindal,  Append.  No.  X. 
"  The  Queen  to  the  Bishops  throughout  England  for  the  suppression  of 
the  exercise  called  Prophesying,  c^-c." 

*  Fuller,  Vol.  Ill,  p.  188.        t  Barlow,  p.  82. 

18* 


418  THE   ENGLISH   BIBLE. 

me  can  be  content  to  pray  for  James  King  of  England, 
Scotland,  France  and  Ireland,  Defender  of  the  Faith;  but 
as  for  Supreme  Governor  in  all  cases  and  overall  persons, 
(as  well  ecclesiastical  as  civil,)  they  pass  that  over  with  si- 
lence ;  and  what  cut  they  have  been  of  I  after  learned." 
Then  having  asked  if  they  had  anything  more  to  say,  and 
being  answered  in  the  negative,  the  King  rose  from  his  chair, 
saying  as  he  passed  to  his  inner  chamber  :*  "  If  this  be  all 
they  have  to  say,  I  shall  make  them  conform  themselves, 
or  I  will  harry  them  out  of  the  land,  or  else  do  worse." 

On  the  third  and  last  day  of  the  conference,  Wednes- 
day, Jan.  18,  the  Archbishop  and  other  church  dignitaries 
were  present,  together  with  many  knights,  civilians  and 
doctors  of  the  law.  But  the  Puritan  ministers  were  not 
admitted  to  any  share  in  the  discussion,  being  merely  called 
in  at  the  close  of  the  meeting,  to  hear  what  had  been  de- 
cided. At  this  session  the  abuses  of  the  High  Commission 
were  the  chief  subject  of  consideration.  One  of  the  Lords 
present  aflBrmed,  that  the  proceedings  in  that  court  were 
like  the  Spanish  Inquisition ;  where  men  are  urged  to 
subscribe  more  than  the  law  requireth ;  and  by  the  oath 
ex  officio,  forced  to  accuse  themselves,  being  examined  upon 
twenty  or  twenty-four  articles  on  a  sudden  without  delib- 
eration, and  for  the  most  part  against  themselves."  But 
the  King  defended  the  practice  in  a  long  speech,  so  entirely 
satisfactory  to  the  prelates  that  the  Archbishop  of  Canter- 
bury, in  a  rapture  of  admiration  exclaimed  :  "  Undoubted- 
ly your  Majesty  speaks  by  the  special  assistance  of  God's 
Spirit !"  To  this  Bancroft,  the  Bishop  of  London  added, 
kneeling :  "  I  protest,  my  heart  melteth  with  joy,  that  Al- 

*  BarloTV,  p.  83. 


THE    COMMON    VERSION.  419 

niiglity  God,  of  his   singular  mercy,  hath  given  us  such  a 
King  as,  since  Christ's  time,  the  like  has  not  been  !"* 

This  question  and  others  proposed  to  the  Conference 
having  been  settled,  the  four  Puritan  preachers  were 
called  in  to  hear  the  trifling  alterations  proposed  to  be 
made  in  the  Liturgy.  They  ventured  to  beg  for  some  lit- 
tle lenity  and  forbearance  towards  certain  godly  ministers 
in  Lancashire,  whose  conscience  did  not  allow  them  to  con- 
form in  all  particulars  to  the  church.  To  this  application 
the  King  at  first  answered  that  it  was  not  his  intention, 
and  he  presumed  it  was  not  the  bishops',  "  presently  and 
out  of  hand,  to  enforce  these  things  without  fatherly  admo- 
nitions, conferences,  and  persuasions;"  that  he  wished 
there  might  be  enquiry  made  whether  these  ministers  had 
converted  any  from  popery,  and  were,  withal,  of  blameless 
characters ;  and  if  so,  that  the  Lord  Archbishop  would 
write  "  letters  directing  some  favor  to  be  shown  them." 
But  Bancroft  promptly  interposed  with  the  suggestion, 
that  if  such  letters  were  granted,  copies  of  them  would  fly 
all  over  England ;  and  then  all  non-conformists  would  beg  for 
the  same  indulgence,  and  so  no  fruit  would  follow  from  the 
Conference,  but  things  be  worse  than  before.  He  desii".ed, 
therefore,  that  a  time  might  be  limited  within  which  they 
should  be  required  to  conform.  To  this  his  Majesty  as- 
sented, and  suggested  that  each  bishop  should  see  that  it  was 
done  within  his  own  diocese.  At  this  point  Mr.  Knew- 
stubbs,  falling  on  his  knees,  prayed  for  the  like  forbearance 
to  some  honest  ministers  in  Suffolk.  But  the  King  had 
now  got  his  cue,  and  interrupting  the  Archbishop  who  was 
about  to  speak,  he  proceeded  :  "  Let  me  alone  to  answer 
him.  Sir,  you  show  yourself  an  uncharitable  man.  We 
*  Fuller,  Ch.  Hist.,  Vol.  Ill,  p.  190. 


420  THE    ENGLISH    BIBLE. 

have  liere  taken  pains,  and  in  the  end,  have  concluded  on 
unity  and  uniformity ;  and  you,  forsooth,  must  prefer  the 
credit  of  a  few  private  men  before  the  peace  of  the  church. 
This  is  just  the  Scotch  argument  when  anything  was  con- 
cluded which  disliked  some  humors.  Let  them  conform 
themselves  shortly,  or  they  shall  hear  of  it."* 

After  a  few  more  words  the  King,  rising,  dismissed  the 
Conference.  As  he  was  leaving  the  Council  Chamber  the 
Bishop  of  London  followed  him  with  the  benediction: 
"  God's  goodness  be  blessed  for  your  Majesty,  and  give 
health  and  prosperity  to  your  Highness,  your  gracious 
Queen,  the  young  Prince,  and  all  the  royal  issue !" 

Thus  closed  the  Conference  of  Hampton  Court.  On  the 
day  following,  the  royal  Moderator  thus  described  it  in  a 
letter  to  a  confidential  friend  in  Scotland,  whom  he  ad- 
dresses as  "  My  honest  Blake  !"* 

"We  have  kept  such  a  revel  with  the  Puritans  here  these  two  days  as 
was  never  heard  the  like  ;  where  I  have  peppered  them  as  soundly  as  ye 
have  done  the  papists  there.  It  were  no  reason  that  those  that  will  refuse 
the  airy  sign  of  the  cross  after  baptism,  should  have  their  purses  stuffed  with 
any  more  solid  and  substantial  crosses.j:  They  fled  me  so  from  argument  to 
arcument,  without  ever  answering  me  directly,  ut  est  eorum  7noris,  as  I 
was  forced  at  last  to  say  imto  them  ;  That  if  any  of  them  had  been  in  a  col- 
lege disputing  with  their  scholars,  if  any  of  their  disciples  had  answered 
them  in  that  sort,  they  would  have  fetched  him  up,  in  place  of  a  reply  ;  and 
so  should  the  rod— [here  the  royal  pleasantry  descends  below  "the  dignity 
of  history."]  I  have  such  a  book  of  theirs  as  may  well  convert  infidels ;  but 
it  shall  never  convert  me,  except  by  turning  me  more  earnestly  against  them. 

And  thus,  pr.iying  you  to  commend  me  to  the  honest  Chamberlain,  I  bid 
you  heartily  Farewell.  James  R. 

*ruller,  Vol.  Ill,  p.  192. 

t  The  whole  letter,  a  curious  if  not  very  dignified  specimen  of  royal  liter- 
ature, is  contained  in  Strype's  Life  of  Archbishop  Whitgift,  Appendix,  No. 
XLVI. 

X  Coins  stamped  with  the  sign  of  the  cvosi. 


THE    COMMON    VERSION.  421 

There  can  now  be  no  room  for  doubt  respecting  the  prime 
object  and  the  animus  of  this  memorable  convention.  The 
establishment  of  Episcopacy  as  the  form  of  church  goveru- 
ment  most  favorable  to  royal  supremacy,  and  the  extinc- 
tion of  Puritanism,  as  tending  in  the  opposite  direction, 
are  written  legibly  in  all  its  proceedings. 

How  then  is  the  fact  to  be  explained,  that  in  regard  to 
one  point  of  vital  interest,  the  wishes  of  the  Puritan  min- 
isters received  the  prompt  concurrence  of  the  King,  and 
that  manifestly  against  the  wishes  of  their  opponents  ;  and 
that  the  realization  of  the  measure  thus  inauspiciously  com- 
mended to  his  notice,  became  one  of  the  chief  objects  of 
his  royal  care  for  several  succeeding  years,  and  the  leading 
historical  event  of  his  reigu  ?  This  was  the  subject  brought 
forward  by  Dr.  Keynolds,  at  the  second  session  of  the  con- 
ference,  of  a   NEW   TRANSLATION   OF   THE    ScRIPTURES.       A 

careful  attention  to  the  circumstances  of  the  case  easily 
solves  the  problem. 

This  scene  in  the  conference  is  thus  described  by  Bar- 
low :* 

"  After  that,  he  (Dr.  Reynolds,)  moved  his  Majesty  that  there  might  be 
a  new  translation  of  the  Bible  ;  because  those  which  were  allowed  in  the 
reigns  of  Henry  the  Eighth  and  Edward  the  Sixth  were  corrupt  and  not 
answerable  to  the  original.  To  which  motion  there  was  at  the  present  no 
gainsaying,  the  objections  t  being  trivial  and  old,  and  already  in  print,  often 
answered ;  only  my  Lord  of  London  well  added,  that  if  every  man's  hu- 
mor should  be  followed,  there  would  be  no  end  of  translating.  Whereupon 
his  Highness  wished  that  some  special  pains  should  be  taken  in  that  behalf, 

*  Sum  and  Substance  of  the  Conference,  &c.,  p.  45.  Comp.  Fuller,  Ch.  Hist. 
Vol.  Ill,  p.  182. 

t  Namely,  to  these  versions,  of  the  reigns  of  Henry  "VIII  and  Edward  VI. 
Dr.  R.  of  course  referred  to  a  version  for  public  use  in  the  Churches.  The  one 
still  in  use  was  Cranmer's  "  authorised  version,"  in  the  unsatisfactory  revisioq 
of  it  by  the  Bishops . 


422  THE    ENGLISH   BIBLE. 

for  one  uniform  translation,  (professing  that  lie  had  never  yet  seen  a  good 
translation  into  English,  but  the  worst  of  all  he  thought  the  Genevan  to  be,) 
and  this  to  be  done  by  the  best  learned  in  both  Universities ;  after  them  to 
be  reviewed  by  the  Bishops  and  the  chief  learned  of  the  Church ;  fror^ 
them  to  be  presented  to  the  Privy  Council ;  and  lastly  to  be  ratified 
by  his  royal  authority ;  and  so  this  whole  Church  to  be  bound  unto  it 
and  no  other.  Marry,  withal,  he  gave  this  caveat  (upon  a  word  cast  out  by 
my  Lord  of  London),  that  no  marginal  notes  should  be  added,  having  found 
in  those  annexed  to  the  Genevan  translation  (which  he  saw  in  a  Bible  given 
him  by  an  English  lady,)  some  notes  very  partial,  untrue,  seditious,  and  sa- 
voring too  much  of  dangerous  and  traitorous  conceits.  As  when  from  Exo- 
dus 1  :  19,  disobedience  to  Kings  is  allowed  in  a  marginal  note  ;  and  2  Chron. 
XV :  16,  King  Asa  is  taxed  in  the  note  for  only  deposing  his  mother  and  not 
killing  her.  And  so  concluded  this  point,  as  all  the  rest,  with  a  grave  and 
judicious  advice, — First,  that  errors  in  matters  of  faith  might  be  rectified 
and  amended ;  .Secondly,  that  matters  indifferent  might  rather  be  inter- 
preted and  a  gloss  added  ;  alledging  from  Bartolus  de  regno  that,  as  better 
a  King  with  some  wealiness  than  still  a  change,  so  rather  a  Church  with  some 
faults  than  an  innovation." 

It  cannot  escape  the  reader  of  this  account,  that  Ban- 
croft's insolent  remark,  thrust  in  with  characteristic  for- 
wardness before  the  King  had  spoken,  was  a  decided  mis- 
take. His  Majesty's  answer  is  based  on  a  view  quite 
different  from  that  which  had  governed  the  policy  of  the 
Primate  and  his  Lieutenant,  the  last  twenty  years  ;  while 
the  sketch  it  contains  of  a  specific  plan  for  the  execution 
of  the  proposed  work,  looks  much  like  the  result  of  delib- 
erate consideration  and  a  previously  settled  purpose.  The 
probability,  that  such  may  have  been  the  case,  will  appear 
from  a  few  facts. 

The  subject  of  an  improved  translation  of  the  Scriptures 
was  by  no  means  a  novel  one.  For  many  years  before  the 
death  of  Elizabeth,  the  question  was  frequently  agitated, 
of  a  thorough  revision  of  the  Church  Bible,  which  should 
bring  it  up  in  critical  accuracy  to  the  demands  of  the  age. 
Hugh  Broughton,  the  profoundest  Biblical  scholar  of  the 


THE    COMMON    VERSION.  423 

time  in  England,  and  probably  excelled  by  none  elsewhere, 
wished  to  devote  his  own  attainments  to  the  task,  and  urged 
its  claims  with  more  enthusiasm  than  prudence,  on  the 
great  men  both  in  Church  and  State.  In  1595,  he  pub- 
lished a  translation  of  a  part  of  the  Old  Testament,  with 
short  explanatory  notes,  as  a  specimen  of  his  proposed 
work,  hoping  thereby  to  secure  the  countenance  and  pecu- 
niary aid  necessary  to  its  completion.  Of  this  he  sent  a 
copy  to  Lord  Burleigh,  with  a  letter  stating  his  plan  and 
soliciting  his  lordship  to  be  "  chiefest  in  coutribution  to- 
wards the  charge,  which  would  be  exceeding  great."  In 
another  letter  to  the  same  distinguished  person,  he  men- 
tions that  "sundry  Lords,  and  among  them  some  bishops, 
and  others  inferior  of  all  sorts,  had  expressed  the  wish  that 
his  long  studies  in  Hebrew  and  Greek  might  be  bestowed 
on  the  improvement  of  the  Bible's  Translation.  That  they 
judged  rightly,  that  amended  it  must  be.  In  what  points, 
he  thought  it  not  good  largely  to  tell  in  words  till  it  were 
performed  in  work ;  lest  the  Bible  then  in  use  be  brought 
into  unnecessary  disgrace ;  but  that  all  persons  of  knowl- 
edee  and  conscience  would  grant  that  bettered  much  it 
might  be."  He  reminds  the  Lord  Treasurer  that  this 
subject  had  been  presented  to  his  notice  two  years  before; 
and  that  "her  Majesty  at  that  time  sent  word  and  message 
to  Sir  Francis  Walsingham  that  it  must  be  considered ; 
which  his  Honor  had  intended  to  do,  but  was  hindered  by 
affairs  of  State."  He  then  proposes,  that  six  of  the  most 
learned  linguists,  to  be  sustained  by  voluntary  contribu- 
tions, be  employed  in  executing  the  work ;  whose  object 
shall  be,  on  the  one  hand,  not  to  alter  where  the  transla- 
tion is  already  well  done;  and  on  the  other,  to  spare 
nothing  that  carried  open  untruth  against  history  and  re- 


A2i  THE    ENGLISH   BIBLE. 

ligion,  or  darkness,  disannulling  the  writers.  In  which 
kind,  Job  and  the  Prophets  might.be  brought  to  sp6ak  far 
better  unto  us." 

But  all  his  hopes  were  frustrated  by  the  opposition  of 
Whitgift  and  Bancroft,  who  disliked  the  man,  and  dreaded 
the  inexorable  honesty  of  his  principles  of  translation. 
Their  avowed  objections  to  his  plan  were  indeed  of  the 
most  pious  character,  and  seemed  dictated  by  a  holy  zeal 
for  the  interests  of  truth.  "  They  feared,"  says  Strype, 
"  that  hereby  an  occasion  might  be  given  to  the  enemies 
of  our  religion,  the  Papists,  of  discrediting  our  common 
English  Bible  and  the  doctrines  that  were  founded  on  it, 
and  weaken  the  reputation  of  that  former  translation  then 
used  in  the  churches."  Broughton,  who  despised  their 
hollow  cant,  and  was  as  hot-tempered  as  he  was  learned, 
denounced  their  cherished  version  as  a  disgrace  to  English 
scholarship;  and  charged  their  pretended  reverence  for  it, 
on  their  unwillingness  "to  lose  their  traps  and  pitfalls.' 
This  discouragement  did  not,  however,  cause  him  to  remi* 
his  eflforts  for  this  great  object ;  for  in  a  letter  to  Lore 
Burleigh  in  1596,  he  speaks  of  "having  written  to  all  the 
realm  for  the  true  Bible;"  and  he  prays  his  Lordship  tc 
advise  the  Archbishop,  whose  opposition  seems  to  have 
been  generally  recognized  as  the  sole  hindrance  to  the 
work,  "  to  take  heed  lest  he  bring  the  realm  to  eternal 
shame,  in  a  matter  the  highest  for  religion."* 

We  see,  from  the  foregoing,  that  the  subject  of  a  new 
version  of  the  Scriptures  was  one  familiar  to  English 
scholars,  many  years  before  it  was  proposed  by  Dr.  Rey- 

*  For  the  facts  in  this  account  of  Broughton's  efforts  for  a  new  translation, 
see  Strype's  Life  of  Whitgift,  pp.  382,  432,  485,  489,  585,  and  elsewhere. 
Broughton  was  one  of  those  unfortunate  geniuses,  who,  with  fine  qualities 


THE    COMMON    VERSION.  425 

nolds  in  the  Hampton  Court  Conference  ;  and  that  not  a 
few  churchmen  as  well  as  others,  acknowledged  the  abso- 
lute necessity  of  the  work.  How  indeed  could  it  be  other- 
wise, with  the  fact  staring  them  in  the  face,  that  the  com- 
mon people  were  daily  reading  in  their  homes  a  version 
every  way  superior  to  that  which  was  read  to  them  '  by 
authority,'  on  Sundays  in  the  Churches  ?  The  comparison 
thus  constantly  forced  on  the  popular  mind,  and  converted 
by  the  warfare  between  Prelacy  and  Puritanism  into  a 
matter  of  lively  practical  interest,  could  not  have  failed  to 
become  a  fruitful  source  of  discussion  among  all  classes 
greatly  to  the  disadvantage  of  the  State  Church. 

Now  James,  with  all  his  mean  and  ridiculous  traits  of 
character,  possessed  an  extraordinary  amount  of  shrewdness 
in  regard  to  every  thing  which  concerned  his  regal  in- 
terests ;  a  faculty  which  he  dignified  with  the  name  of 
Kingcraft,  and  exulted  in  as  his  peculiar  gift  and  glory. 
With  his  eye  fixed  on  the  one  object  of  confirming  and  ex- 
tending the  royal  supremacy,  he  had  in  the  course  of  his 
long  reign,  attained  no  little  expertness  in  detecting  the 
bearings  of  whatever  was  passing  in  his  dominions,  on  this 
central  point  of  interest.  We  have  already  observed,  iu 
bis  remarks  on  the  prayers  of  the  Puritan  clergy,  the  keen- 

and  high  aims  in  life,  seem  born  to  mar  their  own  fortunes  and  ruin  every 
cause  they  seek  to  promote,  through  inability  to  govern  their  tempers 
and  tongues.  His  resentment,  for  affronts  and  injuries,  was  invariably  ex- 
pressed in  a  way  to  help  his  enemy  and  hurt  himself  Whatever  might 
be  the  consequence,  he  could  never  deny  himself  the  pleasure  of  using  his 
sting ;  and  every  real  or  fancied  wrong  was  proclaimed  to  the  public  with  a 
heat  and  violence,  which  gave  his  persecutors  the  advantage  of  seeming  to  be 
the  injured  party.  His  life  was  a  series  of  cruel  disappointments  ;  and  in 
mostof  tbem,  he  had  himself  furnished  his  more  crafty  foes  with  the  weapons 
by  which  they  foiled  him.  So  necessary  in  this  world  are  prudence  and 
temper,  as  woU  as  merit  and  honesty  ! 


426  THE   ENGLISH   BIBLE. 

ness  of  bis  scent  •when  on  the  track  of  popular  tendencies. 
Can  we  doubt  then  that  a  subject  so  important  in  its.  rela- 
tions, and  so  commonly  agitated,  as  a  new  translation  of 
the  Bible,  had  been  already  subjected  in  the  royal  mind  to 
the  touchstone  of  Prerogative  ?  As  little  does  his  speech 
in  the  Conference  allow  us  to  doubt,  that  his  sagacity  had 
discerned  what  Whitgift  and  Bancroft  had  failed  to  see  : 
namely,  that  the  demand  of  the  age  must  be  directed,  not 
resisted ;  converted  if  possible  into  an  instrument  of  abso- 
lutism, not  suffered  to  become  an  instrument  for  subvert- 
ing it.  Sent  out  with  a  prestige  of  scholarship,  which 
should  silence  the  reproachful  clamors  of  the  Puritans  and 
eclipse  their  favorite  Presbyterian  version,  yet  charged 
with  conservative  influences,  and  linked  indissolubly  with 
the  Church  and  the  Throne,  the  new  version  promised  to 
become  the  chief  agent  in  maintaining  the  established  or- 
der. And  hence  it  was,  that  though  this  measure  was  sug- 
gested by  the  obnoxious  party  he  was  resolved  to  crush,  and 
was  evidently  relied  on  by  the  Nonconformist  leaders  for 
the  promotion  of  the  New  Discipline,*  it  was  quietly  ap- 
propriated by  James  and  used  for  his  own  purposes. 

*  Their  plan  was  both  sagacious  and  liberal.  "While  desiring  to  deprive 
Prelacy  of  the  advantages  which  it  derived  from  the  Bishops'  Bible,  they 
did  not  ask  that  it  might  be  superseded  by  the  Genevan,  though  confessedly 
superior  ;  but,  on  the  ground  of  its  acknowledged  corruptions  and  imperfec- 
tions, prayed  for  a  new  translation,  firmly  believing  that  if  executed  on  the 
principles  of  true  criticism,  it  could  not  fail  to  sustain  what  they  held  as 
truth. 


CHAPTER    nil 


THE  COMMON  VEKSION-OONTINUED. 

How  strong  a  hold  the  project  of  a  new  version  had 
taken  of  the  mind  of  James,  and  how  well  he  had  con- 
sidered the  means  for  making  it  answerable  to  his  ends, 
appears  from  the  measures  which  he  immediately  adopted 
for  carrying  it  into  execution.  Taking  the  matter  into 
his  own  hands,  he  set  on  foot  the  necessary  preliminaries 
without  delay,  and  on  a  scale  surpassing  all  that  had  been 
witnessed  in  England  in  connection  with  Bible  translation. 
Bancroft,  now  fully  won  over  to  the  King's  policy,  and 
appointed  general  Overseer  and  final  lieviser  of  the  work, 
pushed  it  forward  with  characteristic  vigor  and  efl&ciency. 
Before  the  end  of  July,  fifty-four  scholars  had  been 
selected  as  translators,  and  arranged  into  six  companies, 
two  of  which  were  to  meet  at  Westminster,  and  two  at 
each  of  the  universities.  The  heads  of  the  universities 
were  directed,  moreover,  to  add  to  the  number  such  others 
as  they  might  deem  qualified  ;  and  the  bishopc  were  ex- 
horted to  spare  no  pains  for  securing  the  suggestions  and 
criticisms  of  the  best  scholars  in  their  respective  dioceses  ; 
"  that  so,"  in  his  Majesty's  words,  "  our  said  intended 
translation  may  have  the  help  and  furtherance  of  all  our 
principal  learned  men  within  this,  our  kingdom." 


428  THE    ENGLISH    BIBLE. 

The  maintenance  and  remuneration  of  the  translators 
was  the  King's  next  care.  The  following  letter,  written 
by  him  to  the  Bishop  of  London,  exhibits  his  plan  for  this 
object.* 

"  Eight  trusty  and  well-beloved,  we  greet  you  well.  Whereas,  we  have 
appointed  certain  learned  men,  to  the  number  of  fifty-four,  for  the  translating 
of  the  Bible,  and  that  in  this  number  divers  of  them  have  either  no  ecclesi- 
astical preferment  at  all,  or  else  so  very  small  as  the  same  is  far  unmeet  for 
men  of  their  deserts  ;  and  yet  we  of  ourself,  in  any  convenient  time  cannot 
well  remedy  it.  Therefore  we  do  heartily  require  you  that  presently  you 
write,  in  our  name,  as  well  to  the  Archbishop  of  York  as  to  the  rest  of  the 
Bishops  of  the  province  of  Canterbury ,t  signifying  unto  them  that  we  do 
will,  and  straitly  charge  every  one  of  them,  as  also  the  other  Bishops  of  the 
province  of  York,  as  they  tender  our  good  favor  toward  them,  that  (all  e.t- 
cuses  set  apart)  when  a  prebend  or  parsonage  being  rated  in  our  book  of 
taxations,  the  prebend  at  twenty  pound  at  the  least,  J  and  the  parsonage  to  the 
like  sum  and  upwards,  shall  next  upon  any  occasion  happen  to  be  void,  and 
to  be  either  of  their  patronage  and  gift,  or  the  like  parsonage  so  void  to  be 
of  the  patronage  and  gift  of  any  person  whatsoever ;  they  do  make  stay 
thereof,  and  admit  none  unto  it  until,  certifying  us  of  the  avoidance  of  it, 
and  of  the  name  of  the  patron,  (if  it  be  not  of  their  own  gift,)  we  may  com- 
mend for  the  same  some  such  of  the  learned  men  as  we  shall  think  fit  to  be 
preferred  unto  it ;  not  doubting  of  the  Bishops'  readiness  to  satisfy  us  herein, 
or  that  any  of  the  laity,  when  we  shall  in  time  move  them  to  so  good  and 

*  From  Regist.  III.  Wliitgift.  Copied  from  Wilkins'  Concilia  magnse 
Britan.  et  Hibem.  Vol.  iv.p.  407  (Harvard  Univ.  library) ;  also  in  Strype's 
Life  of  Whitgift,  p.  590. 

-  f  Archbishop  Whitgift  had  died  in  the  preceding  February,  only  a  few 
weeks  after  the  Hampton  Court  Conference.  His  apprehension,  that  the 
Puritan  influence  in  the  coming  Parliament  might  undo  what  had  been  so 
satisfactorily  settled  in  the  Conference,  is  supposed  to  have  hastened  his  death. 
So  well  aware  was  he,  that  the  measures  there  carried  through,  with  so  high 
a  hand,  were  in  opposition  to  the  wishes  of  the  most  substantial  part  of  the 
nation ! 

I  This,  it  will  be  recollected,  would  be  equal  to  many  times  the  same  sura 
at  the  present  time.  Thus  Fuller  (Vol.  iii.  p.  220)  mentions,  as  an  instance 
of  Archbishop  Hutton  s  munificence,  that  "he  foimded  a  hospital  in  the 
north,  and  endowed  it  with  a  yearly  revenue  of  thirty-five  pounds." 


THE  COMMON  VERSION CONTINUED,        429 

religious  an  act,  Trill  be  unwilling  to  give  us  the  lil?o  duo  contentment  and 
eatisfaction  ;  We  Ourselves  having  taken  the  same  order  for  such  prebends 
and  benefices  as  shall  be  void  in  our  gift. 

"  What  We  write  to  you  of  others,  you  must  apply  it  to  yourself ;  as  also 
not  to  forget  to  move  the  said  Archbishop,  and  all  Bishops,  with  their  Deans 
and  Chapters,  as  touching  the  other  point  to  be  imparted  otherwise  by  you 
tmto  them."  [Then  follows  the  direction  referred  to  above  for  securing  the 
voluntary  criticisms  of  the  learned  clergy  of  each  diocese.]  "  Given  under 
Our  Signet  at  Our  Palace  of  Westminster,  the  22d  of  July,  in  the  second 
year  of  our  reign  of  England,  France  and  Ireland,  and  of  Scotland,  xxxvii." 

This  letter  the  Bishop  of  London  communicated  to 
each  of  his  brethren,  as  directed,  accompanied  by  one 
from  himself,  dated  July  31st,  urging  upon  their  attention 
"  how  careful  his  Majesty  is  for  the  providing  of  livings 
for  those  learned  men."  "  I  doubt  not,"  he  adds,  "  that 
your  Lordship  will  have  a  due  regard  of  his  Majesty's  re- 
quest herein,  as  it  is  fit  and  meet ;  and  that  you  will  take 
such  order,  both  with  your  chancellor,  register,  and  such 
of  your  Lordship's  officers  who  shall  have  intelligence  of 
the  premises,  as  also  with  the  dean  and  chapter  of  your 
cathedral  church,  whom  his  Majesty  likewise  requireth  to 
be  put  in  mind  of  his  pleasure  herein ;  not  forgetting  the 
latter  part  of  his  Majesty's  letter,  touching' the  informing 
of  yourself  of  the  fittest  linguists  in  your  diocese,  for  to 
perform,  and  speedily  to  return,  that  which  his  Majesty  is 
BO  careful  to  have  faithfully  performed."* 

To  this  letter  was  added  a  postscript  explaining  "  that 
other  point "  in  his  Majesty's  letter,  which,  being  a  matter 
of  delicacy,  seems  to  have  been  committed  orally  to  Ban- 
croft, to  be  by  him  made  known  confidentially  to  the  other 
prelates.  It  was,  in  substanct,  this  :  That  the  immediate 
support  of  such  of  the  translators  as  were  without  livings, 
required  a  considerable  sum  to  be  raised  without  delay, 

*  Wilkins  and  Strype,  as  quoted  above. 


430  •  THE   ENGLISH   BIBLE. 

"  which  his  Majesty,  of  his  most  princely  disposition,  was 
very  ready  to  have  borne ;  but  that  some  of  the  Lords  (as 
things  then  went)  held  it  inconvenient."*  A  contribution  for 
this  object  was  therefore  requested  of  the  clergy,  in  his  Ma- 
jesty's name ;  and  as  a  stimulus  to  their  zeal,  the  Bishop 
mentioned  that  he  was  directed  "  to  acquaint  his  Majesty 
with  every  man's  liberality  towards  this  godly  woi-k.' 

The  following  letter  from  Chancellor  Cecil,  to  the  Vice- 
chancellor  and  heads  of  the  University  of  Cambridge, 
bearing  the  same  date  as  that  of  the  King  to  Bancroft, 
suggests  still  another  method  of  meeting  this  necessity,  in 
order,  as  it  seems,  that  the  work  might  be  taken  in  hand 
without  delay  :t 

"  After  my  very  hearty  commendations — Whereas  his  Majesty  hath  ap- 
pointed certain  learned  men,  in  and  of  your  university,  to  take  pains  in 
translating  some  portions  of  the  Scripture,  according  to  an  order  in  that  be- 
half set  down  (the  copy  whereof  remaineth  with  Mr.  Lively,  your  Hebrew 
lecturer)  his  pleasure  and  commandment  is,  that  you  should  take  such 
care  of  that  work,  as  that  if  you  can  remember  any  fit  men  to  join  with  the 
rest  therein,  you  should  in  his  name  assign  them  thereunto ;  and  that  such 
as  are  to  be  called  out  of  the  country,  may  be  entertained  in  such  colleges 
as  they  shall  make  choice  of,  without  any  charge  unto  them  either  for  their 

*  The  royal  finances  were  in  a  desperate  condition,  the  officers  of  the 
household  being  driven  to  their  wit's  end  to  obtain  either  money  or  credit 
for  his  Majesty's  weekly  expenses.  His  persevering  energy  in  pushing  for- 
ward the  new  version  under  these  embarrassments,  is  all  the  more  worthy  of 
notice.  In  1607,  the  King  thus  speaks,  in  a  letter  to  the  Lords,  respecting 
the  better  impro\Tng  his  revenue — "  Mj'  Lords  :  The  only  disease  and  con- 
sumption which  I  can  ever  apprehend  as  likeliest  to  endanger  me,  is  this 
eating  canker  of  want ;  which  being  removed,  I  could  thmk  myself  as  happy 
in  all  other  respects,  as  any  other  king  or  monarch  that  ever  was  since  the 
hirth  of  Christ.  In  this  disease,  I  am  the  patient ;  and  ye  have  promised 
to  be  the  physicians,  to  use  the  best  care  upon  me  that  your  wit,  faithful- 
ness, and  diligence  can  reach  unto." — Strype's  Annals,  Appendix,  No.  297. 

f  Lewis'  Hist,  of  Trans,  of  the  Bible,  p.  313  (from  the  original  in  the  Ar- 
chives of  Cambridge  Univ.) 


I 


THE  COMMON  VERSION CONTINUED,        431 

entrance,  their  chamTjer,  or  their  commons,  except  it  happen  that  any  do 
make  cHoice  to  remain  m  any  ol  tne  poorer  college,!  that  are  not  •well  able 
to  bear  that  charge  ;  and  there  such  order  will  be  taken  by  the  Lord  Bishop 
of  London  as  that  the  same  shall  be  defrayed.  His  Majesty  expecteth  that 
you  should  further  the  business  as  much  as  you  can,  as  well  by  kind  usage 
of  the  parties  that  take  pains  therein,  as  by  any  other  means  that  you  can 
best  devise  ;  taking  such  order  that  they  may  be  freed  in  the  meanwhile 
from  all  lectures  and  exercises  to  be  supplied  for  them  by  your  grave  direc- 
tions ;  and  assuring  them  that  he  will  hereafter  have  such  princely  care,  as 
well  by  himself  as  by  his  Bishops  at  his  commandment,  for  the  preferring 
of  every  one  of  them,  as  their  diligence  and  due  respect  to  his  Majesty's  de- 
sire in  this  so  worthy  an  employment,  shall  (he  doubteth  not)  very  well 
deserve." 

Under  the  same  date  as  his  letter  to  the  bishops, 
Bancroft  wrote  to  the  Cambridge  translators,  informing 
them  :* 

"  That  his  Majesty  being  made  acquainted  with  the  choice  of  all  them  to 
be  employed  in  the  translating  of  the  Bible  in  such  sort  as  Mr.  Lively  could 
inform  them,  did  greatly  approve  of  the  said  choice.  And  forasmuch  as  his 
Highness  was  very  desirous,  that  the  same  so  religious  a  work  should  admit  no 
delay,  he  had  commanded  him  to  signify  unto  them,  in  his  name,  that  his 
pleasure  was,  they  should,  with  all  possible  speed,  meet  together  in  their 
university  and  begin  the  same ;  that  his  Majesty's  care  for  their  better 
continuance  together,  they  might  perceive,  by  their  Eight  Honorable  Chan- 
cellor's letter  to  the  Vice-chancellor  and  heads,  but  more  especially  by  the 
copy  of  a  letter  written  to  himself  for  order  to  be  taken  with  all  the  Bishops 
of  this  realm  in  their  behalf,  which  copy  he  had  herewith  sent  them  ;  that 
he  had  desired  Mr.  Vice-chancellor  to  send  to  such  of  them  as  were  not  now 
present  in  Cambridge,  to  will  them  in  his  Majesty's  name,  that,  all  other  oc- 
casions and  business  set  aside,  they  made  their  present  repair  unto  them 
that  were  at  Cambridge.  Upon  whose  coming,  and  after  they  had  prepared 
themselves  for  this  business,  his  Lordship  prayed  they  would  write  presently 
unto  him,  that  he  might  inform  his  Majesty  thereof,  who  could  not  be  satis- 
fied till  it  was  in  hand.  Since  he  was  persuaded,  his  royal  mind  rejoiced 
more  in  the  good  hope  which  he  had  for  the  happy  success  of  that  work,  than 
of  his  peace  concluded  with  Spain." 

*  Lewis,  p.  314. 


432  THE   ENGLISH   BIBLE. 

His  Lordsbip's  letter  to  the  Vice-Chancellor,  referred 
to  above,  is  as  follows  :* 

"After  my  very  hearty  commendations  :  Being  acquainted  witli  a  letter 
lately  written  unto  you  in  his  Majesty's  name  by  your  right  honorable 
Chancellor,  and  having  myself  received  sundry  directions  from  his  Highness 
for  the  better  setting  forward  of  his  most  royal  designment  for  translating  the 
Bible,  I  do  accordingly  move  you,  in  his  Majesty's  name,  that  ageeably  to 
the  charge  and  trust  committed  unto  you,  no  time  may  be  overslipped  by 
you  for  the  better  furtherance  of  this  holy  work.  The  parties  names  who 
are  appointed  to  be  employed  therein  Mr.  Lively  can  show  you ;  of  which 
number  I  desire  you  by  him  to  take  notice,  and  to  write  to  such  of  them  as 
are  abroad,  in  his  Majesty's  name,  (for  so  far  my  commission  extendeth,) 
that  aU  excuses  sei  aside,  they  do  presently  come  to  Cambridge,  there  to 
address  themselves  forthwith  to  this  business.  I  am  bold  to  trouble  you 
herewith,  because  you  know  better  who  are  absent,  where  they  are,  and 
how  to  send  unto  them  than  I  do.  And  were  it  only,  I  suppose,  to  ease  mo 
of  that  pains,  being  myself  not  idle  in  the  meantime,  I  am  persuaded  I 
might  obtain  at  your  hands  as  great  a  favor.  You  will  scarcely  conceive 
how  earnest  his  Majesty  is  to  have  this  work  begun ;  and  therefore  I  doubt 
not  you  will,  for  your  parts,  in  anything  that  is  within  your  compass,  as  well 
in  this  moved  now  unto  you,  as  for  their  entertainment  when  they  come  and 
better  encouragement,  set  forward  the  same.  And  so  being  always  ready  to 
assist  you,  if  any  difficulties  do  arise  in  the  progress  of  this  business,  I  com- 
mit you  unto  the  tuition  of  Almightj  God." 

With  this  letter  was  likewise  sent  a  copy  of  the  King's 
Instructions  to  the  Translators,  being  a  complete  set 
of  Rules  devised  and  ordained  by  his  Majesty,  for  their 
guidance  in  the  preparation  of  the  work.  As  a  statement 
both  of  the  methods  and  the  principles  on  which  our  Com- 
mon Version  was  executed,  they  are  worthy  of  the  reader's 
most  attentive  consideration.     They  were  as  follows  :t 

1.  The  ordinary  Bible  read  in  the  Church,  commonly  called  the  Bishops' 
Bible,  to  be  followed  and  as  little  altered  as  the  original  will  permit. 

2.  The  names  of  the  prophets  and  the  holy  writers,  with  the  other  names 

♦  Lewis,  p.  SU.    t  yullar's  Ch.  Hiat.,  Book  X,  Sect.  Ill,  t. 


THE  COMMON  VERSION CONTINUED.        433 

in  the  text,  to  be  retained  as  near  as  may  be  accordingly  as  they  are  vul- 
garly used. 

3.  The  old  ecclesiastical  words  to  be  kept,  namely,  as  the  word  church  not 
to  be  translated  cor.gregation,  &c. 

4.  When  any  word  hath  divers  significations,  that  to  be  kept  which  hath 
been  most  commonly  used  by  the  most  eminent  Fathers,  being  agreeable  to 
the  propriety  of  the  place  and  the  analogy  of  faith. 

5.  The  division  of  the  chapters  to  be  altered  either  not  at  all,  or  as  little 
as  may  be,  if  necessity  so  require. 

6.  No  marginal  notes  at  all  to  be  afiSsed,  but  only  for  the  explanation  of 
the  Hebrew  or  Greek  words,  which  cannot,  without  some  circumlocution,  so 
briefly  and  fitly  be  expressed  in  the  text. 

7.  Such  quotations  of  places  to  be  margmally  set  down  as  shall  servo  for 
the  fit  reference  of  one  Scripture  to  another. 

S.  Every  particular  man  of  each  company  to  take  the  same  chapter  or 
chapters  ;  and,  having  translated  or  amended  them  severally  by  himself 
where  he  thinks  good,  all  to  meet  together,  confer  what  they  have  done,  and 
agree  for  their  part  what  shall  stand. 

9.  As  any  one  company  hath  dispatched  any  one  book  in  this  manner, 
they  shall  send  it  to  the  rest  to  be  considered  of  seriously  and  judiciously  ; 
for  his  Majesty  is  very  careful  in  this  point. 

10.  If  any  company,  upon  the  review  of  the  book  so  sent,  shall  doubt  or 
difier  upon  any  places,  to  send  them  word  thereof,  note  the  places,  and  there- 
withal send  their  reasons ;  to  which,  if  they  consent  not,  the  difierence  to 
be  compounded  at  the  general  meeting,  which  is  to  be  of  the  chief  persons 
of  each  company,  at  the  end  of  the  work. 

11.  When  any  place  of  special  obscurity  is  doubted  of,  letters  to  be  di- 
rected by  authority,  to  send  to  any  learned  in  the  land  for  his  judgment  in 
such  a  place. 

12.  Letters  to  be  sent  from  every  bishop,  to  the  rest  of  his  clergy,  ad- 
monishing them  of  this  translation  in  hand,  and  to  move  and  charge  as  many 
as,  being  skilful  in  the  tongues,  have  taken  pains  in  that  kind,  to  send  his 
particular  observations  to  the  company,  either  at  Westminster,  Cambridge, 
or  Oxford. 

13.  The  directors  in  each  company  to  be  the  Deans  of  Westminster  and 
Chester  for  that  place,  and  the  King's  Professors  in  the  Hebrew  and  Greek 
in  each  University. 

14.  These  translations  to  be  used  when  they  agree  better  with  the  text 
than  the  Bishops'  Bible ;  namely,  Tyndale's,  Matthews,  Coverdale's,  Whit- 
ohurch's  [Cranmer's],  the  Genevan. 

19 


434  THE    ENGLISH    BIELK. 

Of  the  fifty-four  appointed  translators,  only  forty-seven 
actually  engaged  in  the  work.  Among  these  it  was  ap- 
portioned in  the  following  manner 

Of  the  three  companies  to  whom  was  committed  the 
Old  Testament,  the  first — ten  in  number — met  at  West- 
minster, under  the  direction  of  Dr.  Launcelot  Andrews, 
Dean  of  Westminster.  To  them  was  assigned  the  Pentateuch, 
and  other  historical  books,  as  far  as  the  end  of  2d  Kings. 

The  second  —  eight  in  number — with  Edward  Lively, 
regius  Professor  of  Hebrew  at  Cambridge,  as  President, 
met  at  that  university.  They  had  for  their  portion  from 
the  first  of  Chronicles  to  the  end  of  Ecclesiastes. 

The  third  met  at  Oxford,  under  Dr.  John  Harding, 
President  of  Magdalen  College,  and  Professor  of  Hebrew. 
They  took  the  remainder  of  the  Old  Testament,  from 
Isaiah  to  Malachi. 

Of  the  two  companies  on  the  New  Testament,  the  first — 
consisting  of  eight  translators — met  at  Oxford,  under  Dr. 
Thomas  Ravis,  Dean  of  Christ's  Church.  Their  portion 
was  the  four  Gospels,  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles,  and  tho 
Apocalypse. 

To  the  second — seven  in  number — who  met  at  West- 
minster, under  Dr.  Wm.  Barlow,  Dean  of  Chester,  were 
assigned  the  Epistles. 

The  remaining  company,  assembled  at  Cambridge  under 
Dr.  Dupont,  Prebend  of  Ely,  and  Master  of  Jesus'  College, 
consisted  of  seven  scholars,  devoted  exclusively  to  the 
Apocrypha. 

A  disagreement  having  arisen  among  the  Cambridge 
translators,  in  regard  to  the  application  of  the  third  and 
fourth  rules,  his  Majesty,  being  informed  of  the  same 
throuoh  the  Bishop  of  London,  added  a  new  feature  to 


THE  COMMON  VERSION CONTIXUED.        435 

the  arrangements,  viz. :  a  special  Board,  consisting  of  "three 
or  four  of  the  most  ancient  and  grave  divines,  to  be  as- 
signed by  the  Vice-Chancellor,upon  conference  with  the  rest 
of  the  heads,  to  be  Overseers  of  the  Translation,  as  well 
Hebrew  as  Greek,  for  the  belter  observation  of  the  rules 
appointed  by  his  Highness,  and  especially  concerning  the 
third  and  fourth  rules."* 

The  exact  time  when  the  translation  was  commenced, 
has  not  been  ascertained.  It  has  been  currently  supposed 
that  the  death,  in  May  1605,  of  Edward  Lively,  the  most 
distinguished  Hebraist  connected  with  the  work,  delayed 
even  its  commencement  till  considerably  after  that  time. 
But  it  seems  to  be  pretty  clearly  settled,  that  the  first 
revision  was  finished  sometime  in  1G07;  and  from  are- 
mark  in  the  Preface,  it  appears  that  this  had  occupied  not 
less  than  three  years,  which  carries  the  beginning  of  their 
work  back  to  1604. 

Their  method  of  proceeding,  in  accordance  with  the 
King's  directions,  was  as  follows.  The  members  of  a  com- 
pany all  took  the  same  portion,  which  each  first  revised  by 
himself ;  then  all  met  together  to  make  up  a  copy  on  which 
they  could  agree.  The  part  thus  completed  was  then 
submitted  to  the  other  companies  for  their  criticisms  ;  and 

*  Lewis,  p.  319. — In  these  rules  and  regulations,  we  find  a  sufficient  expla- 
nation of  the  exclusion  of  Hugh  Broughton  from  the  list  of  translators.  He 
would  never  have  subjected  his  scholarship  to  such  restraints,  or  yielded  to 
the  arbitrary  decisions  of  men  confessedly  far  inferior  to  him  in  learniBg. 
Strype  tells  us — Life  of  Whitgift,  p.  589 — that  in  the  selection  of  translators, 
such  were  avoided  "as  should  affect  many  alterations,  and  different  read- 
ings from  the  former  version,  more  than  needed.  Of  which  sort,"  he  adds, 
"  was  the  great  linguist  Mr.  Broughton.  whose  mind  the  Archbishop  knew 
full  well,  having  divers  years  before  condemned  that  translation,  charging 
it  with  a  great  number  of  errors  undeservedly,  and  treated  very  rudely 
those  grave  and  learned  bishops  that  were  employed  in  it,  aa  though  they 
had  translated  from  the  Latin,  and  wanted  sufiBcient  skill." 


436  THE    ENGLISH    BIBLE. 

if  these  were  approved  by  the  first  revisers,  they  were 
adopted  as  permanent;  if  otherwise,  they  were  reserved 
for  the  judgment  of  the  final  revisers. 

The  whole  version  being  completed  in  this  manner,  three 
copies  were  made  of  it,  (one  at  each  place,)  and  delivered 
to  a  committee  of  twelve^ — six  of  whom  were  chosen  by  the 
translators  from  their  own  number — two  from  each  com- 
pany— and  six,  it  is  supposed,  were  selected  by  the  King, 
according  to  his  first  intention,  from  his  bishops  and  other 
learned  ecclesiastics  not  previously  connected  with  the 
translation.* 

The  work  having  received  this  second  revision,  passed 
into  the  hands  of  Bilson,  Bishop  of  Winchester,  and  Dr. 
Miles  Smith,  (soon  after  made  Bishop  of  Gloucester,)!  who 
again  revised  the  whole,  and  prefixed  arguments  to  the 
several  books.  By  the  King's  direction,  Dr.  Smith  also 
wrote  a  Preface  for  the  work,  which  is  chiefly  occupied 
with  a  defence  of  its  design  and  character  against  various 
classes  of  opposers. 

Finally,  the  Bishop  of  London  received  it  in  charge,  and 
bestowed  such  finishing  touches  as  were  yet  needed  to  fit 
it  for  its  destined  position. 

It  was  at  length  published  in  1611,  with  a  dedication 
to  the  King,  in  which  flattery  was  carried  to  its  culminating 
point.  The  title  page  proclaimed,  that  it  had  been  exe- 
cuted "  by  his  Majesty's  special  commandment;"  and  that 
it  was  "  appointed  to  be  read  in  churches." 

*  Introd.  to  Bagster's  English  Hexapla,  p.  103. 

'  "f  Next  to  Bancroft,  Bilson  had  made  himself  most  conspicuous  among  the 
prelates  of  the  Hampton  Court  Conference,  in  opposition  to  the  Puritans. 
Dr.  Smith's  sentiments  towards  them  are  sufficiently  manifest  in  the  tone  of 
his  Preface,  and  in  his  speedy  promotion  to  the  Bench  of  Bifihops. 


THE  COMMON  VERSION CONTINUED.        437 

Thus  have  we  traced  the  origin  of  our  common  version, 
and  the  principles  and  method  observed  in  its  preparation. 
It  only  remains  to  make  a  few  remarks  in  regard  to  the 
character  of  the  version,  which  was  the  product  of  so 
singular  a  combination  of  influences. 

The  breadth  of  the  King's  plan,  as  compared  with  that 
of  Archbishop  Pai'ker,  is  worthy  of  special  notice.  It  was 
the  Primate's  aim  to  advance  the  cause  of  Episcopacy,  by 
excluding  all  but  bishops  from  a  share  in  preparing  the 
Bible  to  be  used  in  Divine  service  ;  thus  placing  them  be- 
fore the  people,  as  a  distinct  sacred  class,  their  authorized 
teachers  and  directors  in  matters  of  religion.  This  had, 
no  doubt,  some  advantages  ;  but,  on  the  other  hand,  it  di- 
vided them  from  the  sympathy  of  the  great  body  of  Eng- 
lish scholars,  exposed  their  work  and  their  own  pretensions 
to  unsparing  criticism,  and  gave  to  the  claims  of  the  Gene- 
van version  the  fairest  chance  of  recognition.  Let  us  now 
look  at  the  plan  of  James.  His  work  opened  a  field  for 
the  scholarship  of  England.  Her  chief  schools  of  learning 
were  invited  to  contribute  to  it  their  choicest  sons.  All 
classes  of  the  clergy  were  represented  in  it.  Even  Puritan 
scholarship  was  welcomed  to  a  distinguished  place  in  the 
noble  task.  Its  importance  and  dignity  were  further  en- 
hanced by  the  King's  requirement,  that  all  other  literary 
employment — even  lectures  in  the  university — should  be 
relinquished  for  the  time,  and  that  the  translators  should 
be  relieved  of  all  care  for  their  own  support ;  while  the 
royal  employer  pledged  himself  to  reward  their  labor  by 
honorable  and  profitable  preferment  for  life.  Nor  was  this 
all.  The  cooperation  of  every  learned  man  in  the  king- 
dom, by  suggestions  and  criticisms  for  the  use  of  the  im- 
mediate translators,  was  solicited  with  an  urgency  which 


438  THE    ENGLISH    BIBLE. 

would  give  compliance  the  grace  of  a  favor  to  the  King 
himself.  Could  a  method  have  been  more  skillfully  devised 
for  enlisting  in  the  new  version  the  universal  interest  of 
scholars,  and  for  turning  all  eyes  to  it  as  a  great  national 
work  ?  But  it  was  also  a  Protestant  work.  Papists  alone 
had  no  part  in  it.  And  thus  it  appealed  to  all  good  Pro- 
testants, as  a  recognition  of  their  common  faith,  and  their 
common  detestation  of  the  corrupt  and  bloody  church  of - 
Rome. 

So  liberal,  so  catholic  was  the  enterprise,  when  viewed 
on  one  side.  Let  us  now  look  at  it  from  another  point — 
the  principles  to  be  observed  in  its  execution.  The  first, 
third,  and  fourth  of  the  King's  rules  for  the  translators, 
furnish  the  answer  on  this  point.  The  ordinary  Bible 
read  in  the  church,  commonly  called  the  Bishops'  Bible, 
is  to  be  followed,  and  as  little  altered  as  the  original  will 
permit.  The  principle  adopted  in  that  version  in  regard 
to  ecclesiastical  words,  as  church  for  congregation^  is  to 
DC  still  binding.  Words  with  divers  significations  are  to 
be  translated  according  to  the  use  of  the  Fathers,  if  agree- 
able to  the  propriety  of  the  place  and  the  analogy  of  faith. 
In  other  words,  the  appearance  of  change,  which  might  throw 
discredit  on  the  authority  of  the  church,  is  to  be  cautiously 
avoided ;  the  ecclesiastical  terms  which  subserve  the  pre- 
sent constitution  of  the  church  are  to  be  retained,  and  not 
translated  ;  the  translation  of  doubtful  words  is  to  be  de- 
cided by  the  doctrines  of  the  church. 

If  these  rules  have  any  other  meaning,  it  must  be  shown 
on  other  testimony  than  that  of  the  version  itself.  That 
they  contained  the  pith  and  marrow  of  James'  design,  is 
seen  also  in  that  committee  of  the  "  most  ancient  and 
grave  divines,"  appointed  for  the  express  object  of  securing 


THE  COMMON  VERSION CONTINUED.        439 

conformity  to  the  King's  wishes  in  these  particulars  It 
is  noticeable,  moreover,  that  the  prizes  held  out  to  the 
translators  as  a  stimulus  to  their  industry  and  ambition, 
were  high  positions  in  the  Church;  and  of  course  not  to  be 
secured  without  subscription  to  its  doctrines  and  discipline. 
Thus  the  accuracy  of  the  version  was  to  be  made  subordi- 
Date  to  considerations  of  expediency;  and  the  scholarship 
concenti-ated  on  it,  was  but  to  give  new  solidity  and  eclaZ 
to  an  ecclesiastical  system,  which  the  majority  of  the  Eng- 
lis'~.  nation  at  that  very  time  deemed  at  variance  with  the 
word  of  God.* 

The  same  object  is  manifest  also  in  the  succeeding 
measures.  The  next  step  in  the  original  plan,  was  to  subject 
it  to  the  examination  of  the  bishops  ;  and  this  seems  to  have 
beep]  substantially  followed,  in  the  third  revision  by  a  se- 
select  committee  consisting  of  six  translators,  and  the  same 
number  of  church  dignitaries  not  concerned  in  the  transla- 
tion. To  this  succeeded'a  fourth,  by  two  high-churchmen; 
and  finally  it  passed  into  the  hands  of  Bancroft,  now  Arch- 
bishop of  Canterbur}^ — a  man  without  scholarship,  without 
scruples,  and  with  no  power  above  him  but  the  King,  whose 

*"The  following  observation  will  confirm,"  says  Ilallam,  "  what  may 
startle  some  readers,  that  the  Puritans,  or  at  least  those  who  rather  favored 
them,  had  a  majority  among  the  Protestant  gentry  in  the  Queen's  [Eliza- 
beth's] days.  It  is  agreed  on  all  hands,  and  is  quite  manifest,  that  they 
predominated  in  the  House  of  Commons  ;  but  that  House  was  composed,  as 
it  has  ever  been,  of  the  principal  landed  proprietors,  and  as  much  repre- 
sented the  general  wish  of  the  community,  when  it  demanded  a  farther  re- 
form in  religious  matters,  as  on  any  other  subject.  One  would  imagine,  by 
the  manner  in  which  some  express  themselves,  that  the  discontented  were  a 
small  faction,  who,  by  some  unaccountable  means,  in  despite  of  the  govern- 
ment and  the  nation,  formed  a  majority  of  all  parliaments  under  Eliza- 
beth and  her  two  successors." — Constitutional  History  of  England,  ch.  iv., 
Note  to  p.  115  (Am.  edition.) 


440  THE    ENGLISH    BIBLE, 

objects  in  this  uudertaking  precisely  coincided  with  his 
own.  But  though  he  gave  account  to  no  man  of  Us  pro- 
ceedings in  this  matter,  yet  the  whole  body  of  the  tranela- 
tors  stood  before  the  public  as  endorsers  of  all  he  might 
please  to  do  ;  and  the  Puritans  were  made  to  bear  involun- 
tary witness  to  the  divine  institution  of  the  State  church, 
no  less  than  the  most  zealous  of  her  sons.* 

The  excellencies  and  the  defects  of  the  version  thus 
produced,  are  just  what  we  should  expect  from  its  history. 
King  James'  third  and  fourth  rules,  while  they  decided  its 
character  in  certain  important  respects,  on  principles  as 
arbitrary  and  unsound  as  those  adopted  by  the  Rhemish 
translators,  affected  the  expression  only  in  single  points. 
Portions  of  the  work  reflect  the  highest  credit  on  the 
f^cholarship  of  the  time.  Bedell  and  Reynolds,  and  some 
others  of  the  revisers,  were  undoubtedly  masters  of  all  that 
was  then  known  of  sacred  criticism ;  and  that  they  be- 
stowed their  utmost  pains  on  the  work,  there  can  be  no 
question.  But  all  the  translators  were  not  scholars  ;  and 
consequently,  other  portions  fall  decidedly  behind  some  of 

*  What  uso  was  made  of  this  power  by  Bancroft,  is  unknown.  He  was 
publicly  charged  with  having  altered  the  version  in  fourteen  places.  Dr. 
Smith  is  said  to  have  admitted,  in  answer  to  complaints  from  previous 
revisers,  that  "  he  was  so  potent,  there  was  no  resisting  him." 

The  reader  of  this  history  will  find  a  remarkable  coincidence  between  the 
rendering  of  1  Peter  2:  13  in  King  James'  Revision,  {to  the  King,  as  su- 
■preme,)  and  the  language  used  by  him  at  the  Hampton  Court  Conference 
(p.  417).  This  passage  was  rendered  in  the  Bishops'  Bible  :  unto  the  King, 
ashaving  the  pre-eminence.  Among  the  other  versions  to  be  consulted  when 
that  of  the  Bishoi^s'  failed,  it  stood  thus  :  Tyndale,  Coverdale,  Cranmer  and 
Matthew's:  unto  the  King,  as  unto  the  chief  head;  Genevan  :  unto  the 
King  as  unto  the  superior.  To  whom  do  we  owe  it,  that  King  James'  Re- 
vision was  the  nrst  among  English  translations,  which  recognized  in  words 
the  King^s  .supremacy? 


THE  COMMON  VERSION CONTINUED.        441 

the  previous  versions.  Passages  are  mistranslated,  which 
Tyndale  and  Coverdale  and  the  Genevan — some  or  all  of 
them — had  translated  right.  As  a  whole,  moreover,  the 
work  could  not  but  exhibit  the  retrogressive  tendency  of 
that  rigid  conservatism,  which  had  made  adherence  to  a 
defective  version  the  fundamental  rule  of  the  revision,  and 
deviation  from  it  the  exception,  only  to  be  allowed  in  cases 
of  necessity.  Under  this  pressure,  much  would  be  left 
untouched  which  an  unshackled  translator,  aiming  only  to 
present  the  most  perfect  reflection  of  the  divine  original, 
would  have  changed  for  the  better ;  and  the  chauges  that 
were  ventured  on  would  often  be  made  with  a  timid  hand. 
Its  imperfection  is,  however,  to  be  ascribed  in  part  to  the 
King's  haste,  which  did  not  allow  sufiicient  time  for  the 
ripening  of  the  work.  In  the  opinion  of  the  learned  Gene- 
brard,  a  scholar  as  well  qualified  to  judge  on  such  matters 
as  any  of  that  age,  the  labor  of  thirty  men  for  thirty  years 
would  not  have  been  too  large  an  estimate  for  the  thorough 
execution  of  so  great  a  work.*  But  James,  while  he 
wanted  the  best  of  versions,  wanted  it  for  a  specific  pur- 
pose ;  and  that  purpose  could  not  be  answered  even  by  an 
immaculate  version  thirty  years  ahead.  His  anxiety  for 
its  completion,  is  made  the  basis  of  the  following  high- 
flown  compliment  in  the  dedication  of  the  work : 

"  Of  the  infinite  arguments  of  a  right  Christian  and  religious  affection  in 
your  Majesty,  none  is  more  forcible  to  declare  it  to  others  than  the  vehement 
and  perpetuated  desire  of  accomiUishing  and  publishing  this  work,  which 
we  now  present  unto  your  Majesty.  For  when  once  your  Majesty,  out  of 
deep  judgment,  had  apprehended  how  convenient  it  was,  that  out  of  the 
Original  Sacred  Tongues,  together  with  comparing  of  the  labors,  both  in  our 
own  and  other  foreign  languages,  of  many  worthy  men  who  went  before  us, 
there  should  be  one  more  exact  translation  of  the  Holy  Scriptures  into  the 

*  He  reckoned  the  necessary  cost  at  200,000  crowns. 


442  THE    ENGLISH    BIBLE. 

English  tongue ;  your  Majesty  did  never  desist  to  urge  and  to  excite  those 
to  whom  it  was  commended,  that  the  work  might  he  hastened,  and  that  the 
business  might  be  expedited  in  so  decent  a  manner  as  a  matter  of  such  im- 
portance might  justly  require." 

And  thus,  from  these  various  causes,  it  came  to  pass 
that  the  new  version,  instead  of  reflecting,  as  each  succes- 
sive translation  should,  the  increased  light  of  science  with 
Uniform  clearness,  gave  it  back  in  broken  patches,  like  a 
field  on  which  sun  and  shade  contend  for  the  mastery. 

It  has  been  objected,  also,  to  the  method  prescribed  by 
James,  that  decision  by  plurality  of  voices  is  not  always 
the  safest  method  of  reaching  philological  conclusions.  It 
is  obvious  upon  reflection,  moreover,  that  the  plan  of  suc- 
cessive sets  of  revisers,  though  at  first  sight  promising 
faultless  accuracy,  may  prove,  in  practice,  quite  the  reverse. 
For  if  the  work  should  pass  from  the  better  into  the 
worse  hands,  it  would  be  marred  rather  than  mended  by 
the  additional  labor.  We  have  no  evidence,  that  among 
the  revisers  employed  by  James  there  were  any  more  faith- 
ful or  competent,  than  those  who  performed  the  first  revi- 
sion ;  and  it  is  at  least  probable,  that  had  it  been  given  to 
the  public  as  they  left  it,  it  would  have  stood  better  the 
test  of  after  times.  That  some  of  them  were  much  dissat- 
isfied with  the  arbitrary  handling  of  their  labor  is  beyond 
question.  Both  the  Dedication  and  the  Preface  contain 
allusions  to  the  Puritans,  hardly  to  be  explained  except  on 
the  supposition  of  dissatisfaction  in  this  respect  among  a 
part  of  the  translators.  In  the  former,  after  expressing 
the  sanguine  hope,  "  that  the  Church  of  England  will 
reap  good  fruit "  by  means  of  the  new  Bible,  the  writers 
petition  that  it  may  receive  the  royal  support,  both  against 
those  enemies  of  the  faith,  the  Papists,  and  against  the 


THE  COMMON  VERSION CONTINUED.        443 

slanders  of  "  self-conceited  brethren,  who  run  their  own 

*  .        .   . 

ways,  and  give  liking  unto  nothing  but  what  is  framed  by 

theuiseives,  and  hammered  on  their  anvil."  In  the  Pre- 
face they  make  particular  mention,  that  they  have  on  the 
one  hand  "  avoided  the  scrupulosity  of  the  Puritans,  who 
leave  the  old  Ecclesiastical  words  and  betake  them  to  oth- 
ers;  as  vfhen  thej -pnt  washi?ig  for  baptis?7i,  and  congre- 
gation for  church  ;  as  on  the  other  side  they  had  shunned 
the  obscurity  of  the  Papists  in  their  azymes,  tunikc^  ra- 
tional^ holocaust^  and  a  number  of  such  like,  whereof  their 
late  translation  is  full."  At  the  very  outset  of  the  work, 
it  will  be  remembered,  disagreements  of  this  kind  occa- 
sioned the  appointment  of  an  extra  Board  of  Overseers. 
Dr.  Gell,  who  stood  in  an  intimate  relation  to  one  of  the 
translators,  Dr.  Abbott,  (afterwards  so  disliked  by  James 
as  the  mild  and  liberal  Archbishop  of  Canterbury,)  has  said 
of  its  defects :  "  Yet  is  not  all  the  blame  to  be  laid  upon 
the  translators ;  but  part  of  it  is  to  be  shared  with  them 
also  who  set  them  at  work,  who  by  reasons  of  state  limited 
them  (as  some  of  them  have  much  complained)  lest  they 
might  be  thought  not  to  set  forth  a  new  translation  but 
rather  a  now  Bible."*  And  he  further  asserts,  that  "  many 
mistranslated  words  and  phrases  by  2^li-<'i'<^'^li'ty  of  voices 
were  carried  into  the  context,  and  the  better  translation 
was  cast  into  the  margin." 

The  work  was  not  received  by  the  generation  for  whom 
it  was  prepared,  with  that  unanimity  for  which  James  had 
hoped.  The  bait  of  Puritan  scholarship  did  not  sufficient- 
ly conceal  the  real  intent  and  purpose  of  its  royal  and  pre- 
latical  projectors,  to  ensnare  the  body  of  non-conformists. 

*  Essay  toward  the  amendment  of  tho  last  Eng.  Trans. of  the  Bible  (1659), 
Preface,  p.  29. 


444  THE    ENGLISH    BIBLE. 

They  had  already  enjoyed  too  intimate  an  acquaintance 
with  the  Church  to  be  taken  at  her  first  cast,  and  still 
clung  to  their  beloved  "  version  of  Geneva "  which  they 
felt  sure  was  exactly  right.*  Nor  were  all  her  dutiful 
children  pleased  with  the  change.  Dr.  Smith,  in  his  Pre- 
face to  the  version,  thus  represents  the  cavils  of  these 
ultra-conservatives  : 

"Hath  the  Church  been  deceived  all  this  while,  they  asked.  Hath* 
her  sweet  bread  been  mingled  with  leaven,  her  silver  with  dross,  her  wine 
with  water,  her  milk  with  lime  7  We  hoped  that  we  had  been  in  the  right 
way,  that  we  had  had  the  oracles  of  God  delivered  unto  us,  and  that, 
though  all  the  world  had  cause  to  be  offended,  and  to  complain,  yet  we  had 
none.  Hath  the  nurse  holden  out  the  breast,  and  nothing  but  wind  in  it  7 
Hath  the  bread  been  delivered  by  the  fathers  of  the  Church,  and  the  same 
proved  to  be  stone  1  What  is  it  to  handle  the  word  of  God  deceitfully,  if 
this  be  not  7" 

To  these  popular  objections  were  added  those  of  scholars 
like  Dr.  Gell,  who  conceived  that  the  translation  had  been 
biased  by  sectarian  influences.  Critics  of  a  far  higher 
class,  like  the  learned  Selden,  while  warmly  approving  it  aa 
a  decided  advance  on  previous  popular  versions,  objected 
both  to  its  style,  as  rather  "  a  translation  into  English  words 
than  English  phrase,"  and  to  the  too  frequent  inaccuracy 
of  its  renderings.  Whitelocke  says  of  him,  when  sitting 
with  the  Westminster  Assembly  of  Divines  :  "  Sometimes 
when  they  had  cited  a  test  of  Scripture  to  prove  their  as- 
sertions, Selden  would  tell  them,  '  perhaps  in  your  little 
pocket  Bibles  with  gilt  leaves,'  (which  they  would  often 
pull  out  and  read,)  '  the  translation  may  be  thus;  but  the 
Greek  and  Hebrew  signify  thus  and  thus;' and  so  would 
totally  silence  them." 

Such  were  the  difficulties  with  which  the  version  had  to 
•See  p. 367 


THE  COMMON  VERSION — CONTINUED.        445 

contend,  during  the  first  half  of  the  seventeenth  century. 
It  had  not  yet  fairly  established  itself  as  the  Bible  for 
general  use,  when  a  measure  was  set  on  foot  for  a  new 
Translation  of  the  Scriptures.  An  order  for  this  purpose 
■was  introduced  into  Parliament  in  1G52,  and  again  in  165G,* 
and  was  made  the  subject  of  long  and  grave  deliberation 
by  a  special  committee  of  the  House  pf  Commons.*  Had 
it  gone  into  effect,  the  merits  and  the  faults  of  King  James' 
Bible  would  probably  have  been  now  among  the  curiosities  of 
literature  ;  for  it  was  in  the  hands  of  scholars,  whose  names 
still  shine  with  undiminished  splendor  among  the  great 
lights  of  sacred  learning.  A  version  executed  by  men  like 
Castell  and  Cudworth,  Clarke  and  Walton,  would  have 
embodied  a  culture  more  comprehensive,  various,  and  pro- 
found, than  was  ever  before  possessed  by  English  scholars, 
or  than  ever  yet  has  been  bestowed  on  a  vernacular  trans- 
lation of  the  Scriptures  in  any  land.  But  the  political 
changes  which  soon  intervened  frustrated  this  great  design  ; 
and  King  James'  revision,  now  left  without  a  rival,  came 
into  universal  use. 

Such  was  the  origin  and  history  of  our  Common  Ver- 
sion. The  facts  thus  brought  to  view,  by  dissipating  the 
mysterious  halo  which  two  and  a  half  centuries  have  gath- 
ered round  it,  may  diminish  the  blind  fondness  of  our  re- 
gard ;  but  they  exhibit  also  its  indisputable  claims  on  our 
iutellisent  affection  and  veneration. 

It  is  to  be  remembered  with  gratitude,  not  to  James,  but 
to  an  overruling  Providence,  that  the  objects  he  had  in  view 

*  Journal  of  the  House  of  Commons,  published  by  order  of  the  House  of 
Commons ;  and  Whitelocke's  Memorials  of  the  English  Affairs,  London,  1732, 
(Harvard  University  Library). 


446  THE    ENGLISH    BIBLE. 

required  no  perversion  or  obscuration  of  the  essential  doc- 
trines of  our  faith.  The  foundation  still  stood  sure  ;  the 
wells  of  salvation  still  gushed  full  and  free,  and  all  who 
would  might  drink  and  live.  Even  James'  conservative 
narrowness  was  made  the  instrument  of  securing  to  the 
version  one  feature  of  inestimable  value.  We  owe  it  to 
his  anxiety  for  the  credit  of  the  Bible  already  sanctioned 
by  the  Church,  that  the  English  Scriptures  still  speak  to 
us  of  these  later  days  in  substantially  the  same  simple, 
noble,  glowing  phraseology,  in  which  Tyndale  so  long  be- 
fore had  clothed  the  sacred  oracles  for  the  English  people. 
That  King  James'  revisers  could  not  have  changed  its 
general  manner  for  the  better,  is  sufficiently  evident  from 
the  specimens  of  their  ability  which  they  have  furnished  in 
single  cases.  Whether  in  this  respect  it  can  ever  be  es- 
sentially improved,  may  well  be  qestioned.  It  is  at  least 
certain  that  the  English  mind,  thus  long  accustomed  to  a 
style  so  in  unison  with  the  simple  majesty  of  the  inspired 
original,  will  be  slow  to  accept  of  any  version  conceived  in 
a  totally  different  spirit. 

Nor  must  we  forget  that  this  version,  though  the  imme- 
diate product  of  James'  selfish  ambition,  was  no  less  truly 
the  offspring  of  English  Protestantism.  It  owed  its  exist- 
ence, primarily,  to  that  deep-voiced  popular  demand  for 
the  word  of  God,  and  for  that  word  in  its  purity,  which 
had  been  so  long  one  of  the  most  striking,  as  it  was  the 
noblest  exponent  of  Anglo-Saxon  piety.  He  seized  upon 
this  generous  public  sentiment,  and  used  it  for  his  own 
ends.  But  none  the  less  was  its  life  from  the  hearts  of  the 
people  ;  none  the  less  does  it  bear  witness  to  that  law  of 
progress,  which  had  already  marked  the  course  of  English 
history  for  more  than  two  centuries,  with  successive  ver- 
nacular translations. 


CHAPTER  XSIII. 


CONCLUSION. 

In  the  opening  chapter  of  this  volume,  the  Bible  is 
claimed  to  be  the  true  Magna  Charta  of  the  people.  This 
has  fully  appeared  in  the  facts  of  the  preceding  history. 
What  else  awakened  in  the  bosoms  of  the  down-trodden 
English  masses  those  aspirations  after  light,  that  conscious- 
ness of  manhood,  that  sense  of  moral  obligation,  which 
inspired  and  sustained  their  long  struggle  with  tyranny  ? 
Through  all  the  stages  of  this  eventful  story,  embracing 
more  than  two  centuries,  the  direct  influence  of  the  Bible 
in  raising  the  common  mind,  in  imparting  to  it  a  knowl- 
edge of  its  rights,  and  a  fitness  for  enjoying  them,  is  attest- 
ed by  facts  so  numerous  and  so  striking,  that  the  wonder 
is  they  should  ever  have  been  overlooked.  We  have  seen 
it  giving  birth,  in  the  fourteenth  century,  to  religious  en- 
quiry and  spiritual  freedom,  and  in  connexion  with  these 
to  the  spirit  of  civil  liberty.  Under  Henry  VITL, 
under  Bloody  Mary,  what  numbers  were  strengthened  by 
it  to  endure  death,  and  shame  worse  than  death,  rather 
than  submit  to  be  enslaved  in  soul !     In  the  reign  »f  Eliz- 


448  THE  ENGLISH  BIBLE. 

abeth,  these  influences  of  the  Bible  developed  themselves 
still  more,  as  the  use  of  it  was  more  general  and  unre- 
strained. Who  were  then  the  advocates  of  a  spiritual  wor- 
ship, as  opposed  to  that  of  outward  rites  and  garb  and  pos- 
ture ;  of  equality  among  the  ministers  of  Christ,  and  of  the 
rights  of  the  laity  as  members  with  them  of  the  Christian 
body  ?  Who  pleaded  for  the  rights  of  conscience,  for  free 
discussion,  and  an  unrestricted  press?  None  other  than 
those  who  held  to  the  Bible,  as  supreme  and  sole  author- 
ity in  religion.  This  great  principle,  the  soul  of  Noncon- 
formity, was  declared  by  Archbishop  Whitgift  to  be  ""a 
rotten  pillar."*  What  were  the  tendencies  of  the  oppo- 
site principle,  is  shown  in  his  handling  of  the  civil  and  re- 
ligious liberties  of  Englishmen. 

Could  we  trace  this  great  principle  still  farther  down  the 
stream  of  English  history,  we  should  find  that  the  forewarn- 
ings  of  Whitgift  and  his  predecessors  had  something  of  pro- 
phetic insight.     The  revolution  of  1642   developed  what 

*In  his  Reply  to  Cartwright's  Admonition  to  Parliament,  published  ia 
1570.  This  work,  which  first  exhibited,  in  complete  form,  the  Puritan  idea 
of  the  Christian  church,  made  an  impression  in  England,  which  renders  its 
history  one  of  the  leading  features  in  the  great  struggle  for  religious  free- 
dom. The  attempts  of  the  Church  and  the  Court  to  put  it  down  by  author- 
ity, and  failing  in  this,  to  refute  it  by  elaborate  replies,  only  increased  its  in- 
fluence. A  royal  proclamation,  requiring  all  copies  to  be  delivered  up 
within  twenty  days,  under  heavy  penalties,  did  not  secure  a  single  copy  in 
the  city  and  diocese  of  London,  though  thousands,  it  was  well  known,  were 
in  circulation.  But  its  author  could  not  escape  so  easily.  His  nonconformity 
had  already  cost  him  a  professorship  at  Cambridge,  which  he  had  filled  with 
distinguished  ability ;  and  his  remaining  years  were  spent  chiefly  in  exile 
or  in  prison.  He  was  universally  allowed  to  be  one  of  the  most  eloquent 
and  virtuous  divines  of  the  age;  and  Beza  said  of  him,  that  he  "knew 
not  a  more  learned  man  under  the  sun."  But  before  the  High  Commission 
and  the  Star  Chamber,  he  was  denounced  as  worthy  of  being  banished  or 
Bentenced  to  the  gallies  for  life. 


CONCLUSION.  449 

they  had  so  much  dreaded,  its  dangerous  leaning  to  "  a 
Popularity."*  The  inspiration  of  the  Puritan  soldier  was 
the  "  Soldier's  Bible."!  But  the  great  crisis  of  1GS8,  when 
English  Nonconformists  held  the  balance  of  political  pow- 
er, revealed  in  it  a  still  nobler  element.  Then  were  seen 
Presbyterians,  Independents,  Quakers  and  Baptists,  at  the 
price  of  their  own  immediate  freedom,  emolument,  and 
honor,  taking  their  stand  side  by  side  with  their  ancient  op- 
pressor, in  defence  of  the  constitutional  liberties  of  Eng- 
land. 

The  natural  and  complete  unfolding  of  this  principle,  in 
its  relations  to  the  state,  was  reserved  for  this  western  con- 
tinent. The  miniature  commonwealth  which  sprung  into 
being  among  the  snows  of  Plymouth,  was  its  own  immedi- 
ate offspring ;  and  its  mission  was  fulfilled,  when  it  had 
taught  the  empire  developed  from  that  feeble  germ,  that 
religion  needs  no  other  aid  from  the  state  than  the  guar- 
dianship of  the  rights  of  conscience ;  and  that  the  state 
needs  no  aid  from  religion,  except  what  it  derives  from  the 
virtues  by  her  implanted  in  the  individual  citizen.  These 
truths,,  though  not  yet  fully  recognized  by  our  elder  kins- 
men, have  largely  infused  their  spirit  into  the  old  frame- 
work of  English  society  ;  softening  its  harsh  medieval  fea- 
tures with  the  beautiful  light  of  progress  and  practical  free- 
dom. Alone  among  the  nations  stand  these  sister  lands ; 
deriving  whatever  is  noble  and  beneficent  in  their  institu- 
tions, from  the  tendencies  which  the  English  Bible  has  im- 
parted to  the  English  mind. 

One  feature  of  English  and  American  Protestantism  do 
serves  particular  notice,  as  pointing  significantly  to  this 

*  Their  common  designation  of  a  popular  form  of  government. 

t "  r/ie  Soulditr's  Pocket  Bible ;"  London,  1643.  See  Appendix,  No.  III. 


450  THE    ENGLISH    BIBLE. 

divine  source  of  our  civil  liberties  ;  I  mean  the  weight  and 
dignity  of  the  Lay  Element  in  the  Christian  body.  Nei- 
ther the  maintenance  of  vital  religion  in  the  heart,  nor  the 
management  of  its  outward  interests,  now  rests  exclusively 
on  the  official  messengers  of  salvation.  In  every  depart- 
ment of  Christian  effort,  is  felt  the  wholesome  action  of  the 
practical  heads  and  honest  hearts  of  the  laity.  The  Chris- 
tian laymen  of  the  two  countries,  are  the  glory  of  our  com- 
mon liiieflffc  and  our  common  faith. 

The  vernacular  Bible  then,  is  the  great  inheritance  of 
the  English  race.  How  to  preserve  it,  in  undecaying  vi- 
tality and  undiminished  power,  is  the  grand  question  of 
each  successive  age.  On  this  grave  point,  its  own  history 
furnishes  valuable  instruction.  Through  the  whole  six- 
teenth century,  during  which  the  Bible  gained  its  firm  hold 
on  the  popular  life  of  all  England,  the  work  of  Bible- 
translation,  as  its  determining  clement,  was  one  of  constant 
growth  and  progress.  Each  new  ray  of  light  that  fell  on 
the  original  Scriptures,  was  turned  with  generous  haste  by 
the  scholars  of  that  age  upon  the  vernacular  Bible.  Suc- 
cessive revisions  placed  the  unlearned  reader  nearer  and 
nearer  to  the  inspired  sources.  It  was  not  then  found  un- 
safe for  the  common  mind  to  know,  that  every  translation 
of  the  Scriptures,  being  the  work  of  men,  is  liable  to  error 
and  susceptible  of  improvement.  The  idea  of  an  English 
Vulgate,  to  inspire  reverence  for  revealed  truth,  and  secure 
the  unity  of  the  faith,  by  standing  in  unchanging  opacity 
between  .the  people  and  the  divine  source  of  light,  had  not 
then  been  dreamed  of. 

But  there  is  one  point  of  view,  in  which  all  the  English 
versions  and  revisions,  from  Tyndale's  to  that  of  King 
James,  stand  on  a  level.  All  belong  to  a  single  epoch  of 
Bcholarship,  progressive,  indeed,  but  in  its  leading  features 


CONCLUSION.  451 

one  and  tbo  same;  and  our  common  version  was  the  last  great 
eflfort  of  the  infant  period  of  Biblical  science  in  England. 
With  the  second  quarter  of  the  seventeenth  century  there 
dawned  a  new  era  of  sacred  learning.  Well  was  it  said  by 
royal  lips  :  "  There  were  giants  in  those  days  !"  The  con- 
stellation of  Christian  scholars,  which  then  rose  on  Eng- 
land, illuminated  all  Christendom ;  and  the  epoch  thus 
commenced  reaches  down  to  and  embraces  our  own  day. 
The  works  of  Walton,  Castell,  Lightfoot,  Pococke,  and 
their  illustrious  compeers  in  the  seventeenth  century,  and 
those  of  Mill,  Bentley,  and  others  of  the  eighteenth,  are 
sources  from  which  modern  scholarship  still  draws  large 
supplies.  All  over  Europe  was  witnessed  a  simultaneous 
advance,  both  in  the  materials  of  Biblical  science,  and  in 
the  genius  and  ardor  of  the  minds  devoted  to  it.  From 
the  middle  of  the  nineteenth  century,  we  look  back  on  the 
accumulated  results  of  more  than  two  hundred  years  of  the 
most  profound  and  brilliant  scholarship  the  world  has 
known  ;  and  not  one  ray  of  this  has  yet  been  allowed  to 
shine  through  our  English  Bible  ! 

The  character  of  these  results  is  now  very  generally 
known  to  English  readers.  Through  popular  works  on  the 
subject,  and  espe(;ially  through  the  free  discussion  of  it  in 
the  leading  lleviews*  and  other  periodicals,  facts  once  con- 
fined to  the  learned  few  have  become  the  common  property 
of  this  inquisitive  age.  Biblical  Antiquities,  Geography, 
Natural  History,  &e.,  are  throwing  new  light,  it  is  claimed, 
on  a  multitude  of  passages  in  the  original.  Still  more  im- 
portant is  the  increased  knowledge  of  the  sacred  tongues. 
We  are  assured  that  much  of  the  seeming  obscurity  of  the 
Scriptures  belongs,  not  to   the  inspired  word  itself,  but  to 

*See  particularly,  Edinburgh  Review,  No.  CXCI,  for  July,  1851 ;  and 
North  British  Review,  No.  XXXVIII,  for  August,  1853. 


452  THE    ENGLISH    BIBLE. 

the  imperfect  expression  of  it  by  the  translators  ;  and  that, 
in  instances  without  number,  the  scholar  of  the  present 
day  finds  clearness,  force,  and  beauty,  in  the  original  text, 
where  the  vernacular  Bible  is  dark  and  confused,  and  can 
trace  connected  trains  of  thought  where  that  presents  it 
broken  into  incoherent  fragments.  But  none  of  these  state- 
ments have  awakened  so  general  and  so  lively  an  interest, 
as  those  which  relate  to  the  Sacred  Text  itself.  Here, 
we  are  told,  the  learned  now  stand  on  an  eminence,  far 
above  those  who  prepared  our  common  version.  Wbile 
the  latter  were  acquainted  with  the  inspired  text  of  the 
New  Testament,  only  through  copies  made  a  thousand 
years  or  more  after  the  Apostolic  age,  the  more  favored 
scholars  of  the  later  epoch  have  access  to  manuscripts,  di- 
vided from  it  by  only  three  or  four  centuries.  We  are  also 
told  of  translations  into  other  ancient  languages,  made  in 
the  first  centuries  after  Christ,  from  manuscripts  coeval 
with  the  inspired  text ;  of  numerous  citations  fi-om  it,  in 
writings  of  the  early  Christian  Fathers ;  all  adding  their 
independent  testimony  to  that  of  these  ancient  Exemplars. 
In  fine,  we  are  infornKjd,  that  through  the  labors  of  suc- 
cessive generations  of  gifted  and  zealous  scholars  on  these 
materials,  the  learned  have  now  a  text  which  dates  within 
the  borders  of  the  apostolic  age ;  and  that  the  variations 
between  this  Text  and  the  one  from  which  our  common 
version  was  made,  are  reckoned  by  thousands. 

Is  it  possible  that  a  version,  which  embodies  none  of 
these  results  of  modern  scholarship,  can  long  command  the 
public  confidence  ?  Is  it  not  to  be  feared  that  the  English 
Bible,  so  long  the  chief  element  of  Anglo-Saxon  progress, 
may  gradually  relax  its  grasp  on  the  popular  life ;  to  be 
honored  at  length  rather  as  a  monument  of  the  past,  than 
as  the  living  power  which  penetrates  and  controls  the  age  ? 


APPENDIX. 


I.     Specimens  of  the  early  English  Versions. 
II.     The  Immaculate  Conception. 
III.     The  Soldier's  Bible. 


Note. — The  Specimens  of  the  early  Versions  are  given  without  change,  ex 
cept  in  the  orthography,  which  is  modernized. 


454 


APPENDIX   I. 


WICKLIFFE. 
Exodus  20  :  1—17. 
And  the  Lord  spake  all  these  words  : 
r  am  thy  Lord  God,  that  led  thee  out  of 
the  land  of  Egypt,  from  the  house  of 
Bervage.  Thou  shall  not  have  alien 
gods  before  nie.  Thou  shalt  not  make 
to  thee  a  graven  image,  neither  any 
likeness  of  thing  •\vliich  is  in  heaven 
above,  and  which  Is  in  earth  be- 
neath, neitlier  of  the  things,  that  be  in 
waters  under  earth ;  thou  shalt  not 
herye  [honor]  tho  ;  neither  thou  shalt 
■worship ;  for  I  am  thy  Lord  God,  a 
strong  jealous  lover  ;  and  I  visit  the 
wickedness  of  faders  into  tlie  third  arid 
the  fourth  generation  of  them  that  ha- 
ten  me,  and  I  do  mere}'  in  to  a  thous- 
and to  them  that  loven  me  and  keep 
mine  bests.  Thou  shalt  not  take  in 
vain  the  name  of  thy  Lord  God,  for  the 
Lord  shall  not  have  him  guiltless,  that 
taketh  in  vain  the  name  of  his  Lord 
God.  Have  thou  mind  that  thou  hal- 
low the  day  of  the  sabbat  ;  in  sis  days 
thou  shalt  work  and  shalt  do  all  thy 
works;  forsooth  in  the  seventh  day  is 
the  sabbat  of  thy  Lord  God  ;  t  liou 
Bhalt  not  do  any  work,  thou,  and  thy 
eon,  and  thy  daugliter,  and  thy  servant, 
and  thine  handhiaid,  thy  work  beast, 
mid  the  comeling  (stranger]  that  is 
within  thy  gates  ;  for  in  si.K  days  God 
made  heaven  and  earth,  tho  sea,  and  all 


MATTHEWS  (TTNDALE) 
ExoDDS  20  :  1—17. 

And  God  spake  all  these  words  and 
said  :  I  am  the  L..rd  thy  God,  which 
have  brought  thee  out  of  the  land  of 
Egypt,  and  out  of  the  house  of  bond- 
age. Thou  sh.alt  have  none  other  Gcda 
in  my  sight.  Thou  shalt  make  thee  no 
graven  image,  neither  any  similitude 
that  is  in  heaven  above,  either  in  the 
earth  Ijeneath,  or  in  the  water  that  is 
beneath  the  earth.  See  that  thou 
neither  bow  thyself  unto  them  neither 
serve  them:  for  I  the  Lord  thy  God  am 
a  jealous  God,  and  visit  the  sin  of  the 
fathers  upon  the  children  mito  the  third 
and  fourth  generation  of  them  that 
hate  me,  and  yet  show  mercy  unto 
thou.sands  among  them  that  love  me 
and  keep  my  commandments. 

Thou  shalt  not  take  the  name  of  the 
Lord  thy  God  in  vain,  for  the  Lord 
■n-ill  not  hold  him  guiltless  that  taketh 
his  name  in  vain.  Remember  the  Sab- 
bath day  th.it  thou  sanctify  it.  Six 
days  mayst  thou  labor  and  do  all  that 
thou  hast  to  do  :  but  the  seventh  day 
is  the  Sabbath  of  the  Lord  thy  God;  in 
it  thou  shalt  do  no  manner  work; 
neitlier  thou  nor  thy  son,  nor  thy 
daughter,  neither  thy  man  ser\-ant,  nor 
thy  maid  servant,  neither  thy  cattle, 
neither  yet  the  stranger  that  is  within 
thy  gates.  For  in  six  days  the  Lord 
made    both    heaven  and    earth,    and 


GENEVAN.    Exodus  20  :  1—17. 

Then  God  spake  all  these  words,  saying, 

2.  I  am  the  Lord  thy  Go.l,  which  have  brought  thee  out  of  the  land  of  Egypt 
out  of  !he  house  of  bondage. 

3.  Thou  shalt  have  none  other  gods  before  me. 

4.  Thou  shalt  make  thee  no  graven  image,  neither  any  simihtude  [of  things] 
that  are  in  heaven  above,  neither  that  are  in  the  earth  beneath,  nor  that  are  in 
the  waters  under  the  earth. 

5.  Thou  shalt  not  bow  down  to  them,  neither  serve  them;  for  I  am  the  Lord 
thy  God,  a  jealous  God,  visiting  the  iniquity  of  the  fathers  upon  the  children, 
upon  the  third  [generation)  and  upon  the  fourth  of  them  that  hate  me  ; 

6.  And  showing  mercy  imto  thousands  to  them  that  love  me,  and  keep  my  com- 
mand raents. 

7.  Thou  shalt  not  take  the  name  of  the  Lord  thy  God  in  vain  ;  for  the  Lord 
will  not  hold  him  guiltless  that  taketh  his  name  in  vain. 

8.  Remember  tlie  Sabbath  day,  to  keep  it  holy. 

9    Six  days  shalt  thou  labor,  and  do  all  thy  work. 

10.  But  the  seventh  day  [is]  the  Sabbath  of  the  Lord  thy  God;  [in  it]  thon 
Bhalt  not  do  any  work,  thou,  nor  thy  son,  nor  thy  daughter,  thy  man  servant, 
nor  thy  maid,  nor  thy  beast,  nor  thy  stranger  that  is  within  thy  gates. 

11.  For  in  sis  days  the  Lord  made  the  heaven  and  the  earth,  the  sea,  and  all 


APPENDIX    I. 


455 


COVERDALE. 

ExoDns  20  :  1—17. 

And  the  Lord  spake  all  these  words, 
and  said  :  I  am  the  Lord  thy  God, 
■which  have  brought  the  out  of  the 
land  of  Egypt  from  the  house  of  bond- 
ago. 

Thou  shalt  have  none  other  Gods  in 
my  sight.  Thou  shalt  make  thee  no 
graven  image,  nor  any  similitude, 
neither  of  it  tliat  is  above  in  heaven, 
nor  of  it  that  is  beneath  upon  earth, 
neither  of  it  that  is  in  the_water  under 
the  earth.  Woi'.ship  them  not,  and  serve 
them  not:  for  I  tlie  Lord  thy  God  am 
a  jealous  Ood,  visiting  the  sin  of  the 
fathers  upon  the  children,  unto  the 
third  and  fourth  generation  of  them 
that  hate  me;  and  do  mercy  upon  many 
thousands  that  love  me  and  keep  my 
commandments. 

Thou  shalt  not  take  the  name  of  the 
Lord  thy  God  in  vain.  For  the  Lord 
shall  not  hold  him  unguilty  that  taketh 
his  name  in  vain. 

Remember  the  Sabbath  day  that 
thou  sanctify  it.  Six  days  slialt  thou 
labor  and  do  all  thy  work  :  But  upon 
the  seventh  day  is  the  Sabbath  of  the 
Lord  thy  God;  thou  shalt  do  no  manner 
of  work  init,  neither  thou,  nor  thy  son, 
nor  thy  daughter,  nor  thy  servant,  nor 
thy  maid,  nor  thy  cattle,  nor  thy  stran- 
ger that  is  within  thy  gates.  For  in 
six  days  the  Lord  made  heaven  and 


CRANMER. 

Exodus  20  : 1— IT. 

And  God  spake  all  these  words  and 
said  :I  am  the  Lord  ihy  God,  which 
have  brought  thee  out  of  the  land  of 
F2y])t,  out  of  the  house  of  bondage. 
Thou  shalt  have  none  other  Gods  in 
my  sight.  Thou  shalt  make  thee  no 
graven  imaa-e,  neither  any  similitude 
that  is  in  heaven  al)ove,  either  in  the 
earth  beneath,  or  in  the  waters  under 
the  eai-th.  Thou  shalt  not  worship 
them,  neither  serve  them;  for  I  the 
Lord  thy  God  am  a  jealous  God,  and 
visit  the  sin  of  the  fathers  ujjon  the 
children  unto  the  third  and  fourth  gen- 
eration of  them  that  bate  me;  and  show 
mercy  unto  thousands  in  them  that 
love  me  and  keep  my  commandments. 

Thou  shalt  not  take  the  name  of  the 
Lord  thy  God  in  vain,  for  the  Lord 
will  not  hold  him  guiltless  that  taketh 
his  name  in  vain.  Remember  the  Sab- 
bath day  that  thou  sanctify  it.  Six 
days  shalt  thou  labor  and  do  all  that 
thou  hast  to  do;  but  the  seventh  day 
is  the  Sabbath  of  the  Lord  thy  God  ;  in 
it,  thou  shalt  do  rio  manner  of  work, 
thou,  and  thy  son,  and  thy  daughter, 
thy  man  servant,  and  thy  maid  servant, 
thy  cattle,  and  the  stranger  that  is  with- 
in thy  gates.  For  in  six  days  the 
Lord  made  heaven  and  earth,  the  sea, 


BISHOPS.    Exodus  20  : 1—17. 
And  God  spake  all  ttiese  words,  and  said, 

2.  I  am  the  Lord  thy  God,  which  have  brought  thee  otit  of  the  land  of  Egypt, 
out  of  the  house  of  bondage. 

3.  Thou  shalt  have  none  other  Gods  in  my  sight. 

4.  Thou  shalt  make  thee  no  graven  image,  neither  the  likeness  of  anything 
that  is  in  heaven  above,  either  in  the  earth  beneath,  nor  in  the  waters  imder 
the  e;irth. 

5.  Thon  sh.alt  not  bow  down  to  them,  nor  worship  them  ;  for  I  the  Lord  thy 
God  am  a  jealous  God,  and  visit  the  sin  of  the  fathers  upon  the  children,  unto  the 
third  and  fourth  generation  of  them  that  hate  me  ; 

6.  And  show  mercy  unto  thousands  in  them  that  love  me,  and  keep  my  com- 
mandments. 

7.  Thou  shalt  not  take  the  n.ame  of  the  Lord  thy  God  In  vain  :  for  the  Lord 
will  not  hold  him  guiltless  that  taketh  his  name  in  vain. 

8.  Remember  the  Sabbath  day,  that  thou  sanctify  it. 

9.  Six  days  shalt,  thou  labor,  and  do  all  that  thou  hast  to  do. 

10  But  the  seventh  day  is  the  Sabbath  of  the  Lord  thy  God;  in  it  thou  shalt 
do  no  manner  of  work,  thou  and  thy  son  and  thy  daugliter,  thy  man  servant, 
and  thy  maid  servant,  thy  cattle,  and  the  stranger  that  is  within  thy  gates  ; 

11.    For  in  six  days  the  Lord  made  heaven  an^l  earth,  the  sea,  and  all  that  in 


456 


APPENDIX    I.    (continued.) 


WICKLIFFE. 
things  that  ben  in  tho,  and  rested  in  the 
seventh  day  ;  herefor  the  Lord  blessed 
the  day  of  the  sabbat  and  hallo-wed  it. 
Honor  thy  fader  and  thy  moder,  that 
thou  be  lon<;  living  on  the  lond,  which 
the  Lord  thy  God  shall  give  to  thee. 
Thou  shalt  not  slay.  Thou  shalt  do 
no  lechery.  Thou  shalt  do  no  theft. 
Thou  shalt  not  speak  false  witnessing 
against  thy  neighbor.  Thou  shalt  not 
covet  the  house  of  thy  neighbor,  neither 
thou  shalt  desire  his  -wife,  not  servant, 
not  handmaid,  not  ox,  not  ass,  neither 
all  things  than  beu  his. 


MATTHEWS  (TYNDALE). 
the  sea,  and  all  that  in  them  is,  and 
rested  the  seventh  day  •  wherefore  the 
Lord  blessed  the  Sabbatli  day  and  hal- 
lowed it.  Honor  thy  father  and  thy 
mother,  that  thy  days  may  be  long  in 
the  land  which  the  Lord  thy  God  giveth 
thee. 

Thou  shalt  not  kill. 

Thou  shalt  not  break  wedlock. 

Thou  shalt  not  steal. 

Thou  slialt  bear  no  false  witness 
against  thy  neighbor. 

Thou  sh'a^t  not  covet  thy  neighbor's 
house  ;  neither  shalt  covet  thy  neigh- 
bor's wife,  his  man  servant,  his  maid, 
his  ox,  his  ass,  or  aught  that  is  his. 


GENEVAN, 

that  in  them  is,  and  rested  the  seventh  day;  therefore  the  Lord  blessed  the 
Sabbath  day,  and  hallowed  it. 

12.  Honor  thy  father  and  thy  mother,  that  thy  days  may  be  prolonged  upon 
the  land,  which  the  Lord  thy  God  giveth  thee. 

13.  Thou  shalt  not  kill. 

14.  Thou  shalt  not  commit  adultery. 

15.  Thou  shnlt  not  steal. 

16.  Tiiou  shall  not  bear  false  witness  against  thy  neighbor. 

17.  Thou  shalt  not  covet  thy  neighbor's  house," neither  fhalt  thou  covet  thy 
neigh Ijor's  ^vife,  nor  his  man  sen-ant,  nor  his  maid,  nor  his  ox,  nor  his  ass,  neither 
anything  that  is  thy  neighbor's. 


APPENDIX  r.  (continued.) 


457 


COVERDALE. 

earth,  and  the  sea  and  all  that  therein 
is,  and  rested  upcyi  the  seventh  day  ; 
therefore  the  Lord  blessed  the  seventh 
day  and  hallo-wed  it. 

Honor  thy  father  and  thy  mother, 
that  thou  niayest  live  long  in  the  land, 
•which  the  Lord  thy  God  shall  give 
thee. 

Thou  Shalt  not  kill. 

Thou  shalt  not  break  wedlock. 

Tliou  shalt  not  steal. 

Thou  shalt  bear  no  false  witness 
against  thy  neiijhbor. 

Thou  shalt  not  lust  after  thy  neigh, 
bor's  house.  Thou  shalt  not  lust  after 
thy  neighbor's  wife,  nor  his  servant, 
nor  his  maid,  nor  his  ox,  nor  his  ass, 
nor  all  that  thy  neighbor  hath. 


,  CRANMER. 
and  all  that  in  them  is,  and   rested 
the  seventh  day,  wherefore  the  Lord 
blessed  the  Sabbath  day  and  hallowed 
it. 

Honor  thy  father  and  thy  mother, 
that  thy  d,;y8  may  bo  long  in  the 
land  which  the  Lord  thy  God  giveth 
thee. 

Thou  Shalt  not  kill. 

Thou  shall  not  break  wedlock 

Thou  shalt  not  steal. 

Thou  shalt  not  bear  false  witness 
against  thy  neighbor. 

Thou  shalt  not  covet  thy  neighbor's 
house  :  neither  shalt  thou  covet  thy 
neighbor's  wife,  or  his  man  servant,  or 
his  maid,  or  his  ox,  or  his  ass,  or  what- 
soever  thy  neighbor  hath. 


BISHOPS. 

them  is,  and  rested  the  seventh  day;  wherefore  the  Lord  blessed  the  seventh 
day,  and  hallowed  it. 

12.  Plonor  thv  father  and  thy  mother;  that  thy  days  may  be  long  in  the  land 
Trhich  the  Lord  thy  God  giveth  thee. 

13.  Thou  shalt  not  kill. 

14.  Thou  shalt  not  commit  adultery. 

15.  Thou  shalt,  not  steal. 

16.  Thou  shalt  not  bear  false  witness  against  thy  neighbor. 

17.  Thou  shalt  not  covet  thy  neighbor's  house,  neither  6h.alt  thou  covet  thy 
neighbor's  wife,  nor  his  man  servant,  nor  his  maid,  nor  his  ox,  nor  his  ass,  nor 
anything  that  is  thy  neighbor's. 


458 


APPENDIX  :      (continued.) 


"WICKLTFFE. 

Luke  7  :  S6-50. 
Bat  one  of  the  Pharisees  prayed  Je- 
Bus,  that  he  should  eat  -with  him.-  And 
ho  entered  into  the  house  of  the  Phari- 
see, and  sat  at  the  meat.  And  lo  1  a 
einful  woman,  that  was  in  the  city,  as 
she  Itnew  that  Jesus  sat  at  the  meat  in 
the  house  of  the  Pharisee,  she  brought 
an  alabaster  box  of  ointment ;  and  she 
stood  behind  besides  his  feet,  and  began 
to  moist  his  feet  with  tears,  and  wiped 
with  the  hairs  of  her  head,  and  kissed 
Lis  feet,  and  anointed  with  ointment. 
And  the  Pliarisee  seeing,  that  had  cle- 
pid  [called,  bidden]  him,  said  within 
himself,  saying.  If  this  were  a  prophet, 
lie  should  wite  [know]  who  and  what 
manner  woman  it  were  that  toucheth 
him,  for  she  is  a  sinful  woman.  And 
Jesus  answered  and  said  to  him,  Simon, 
I  have  something  to  say  to  thee.  And 
he  said,  Master,  saj-  thou.  And  he  an- 
swered ;  Two  debtors  were  to  one  lean- 
er :  and  one  owed  iive  hundred  pence, 
and  the  other  lifty  ;  bu.  when  they  had- 
den  not  whereof  they  shoulden  geld 
[payl,  he  forgave  to  both.  Who  then 
lovetli  him  more  ?  Simon  answered  and 
said,  I  guess,  that  he  to  whom  ho  for- 
gave more.  And  he  answered  to  liim, 
Thou  hast  deemed  rightly.  And  he 
turned  to  the  woman,  and  said  to  Si- 
mon, Seest  thou  this  woman?  I  en- 
tered into  thine  house,  thou  gave  no 
•water  to  my  feet ;  but  this  hath  moist- 


TTNDALE. 

Ltjke  7 :  36-50. 

And  one  of  the  pharisees  desired  him 
that  he  would  eat  with  him.  And  ho 
came  into  the  Pharisee's  house  and  sat 
down  to  meat.  And  behold  a  woman 
ui  tiiat  city  which  was  a  sinner,  as  soon 
as  she  knew  that  Jesus  sat  at  meat  in 
the  Pharisee's  house,  she  brought  an 
alabaster  box  of  ointment,  and  she  stood 
at  his  feet  behind  him  weeping,  and  be- 
gan to  wash  his  feet  with  tears,  and  did 
wipe  them  with  the  hairs  of  her  head, 
and  kissed  his  feet,  and  anointed  them 
with  ointment. 

When  the  Pharisee  which  bade  him 
to  his  house,  saw  that,  he  spake  within 
himself,  saying  :  If  this  man  were  a 
prophet,  he  would  surely  have  known 
who  and  what  manner  woman  tliis  is 
wliich  toucheth  him,  for  she  is  a  sin- 
ner. And  Jesus  answered  and  said 
unto  liim  :  Simon,  I  have  somewhat  to 
say  tmto  thee.  And  he  said  :  Master, 
say  on.  There  was  a  certain  lender 
which  had  two  debtoi-s  :  the  one  owed 
five  hundred  pence,  and  the  other  fifty. 
When  they  had  nothing  to  pay,  he  for- 
gave them  both.  Which  of  them,  tell 
me,  will  love  him  most  ?  Simon  an- 
swered and  said  :  I  suppose  that  he  to 
whom  he  forgave  most.  And  he  said 
unto  him.  Thou  hast  truly  judged. 

And  he  turned  to  the  woman,  and  said 
unto  Simon  :  Seest  thou  this  woman  ? 
I  entered  into  thy  house,  and  thou 
gavest  me  no  water  to  my  feet  ;  but 


GENEVAN.    Luke  7  :  36-50. 

36.  And  one  of  the  Pharisees  desired  him  that  he  would  eat  with  him.  And 
he  went  into  the  Pharisees  house,  and  sat  down  at  table. 

37 .  And  behold,  a  woman  in  the  city,  which  was  a  sinner,  when  she  knew 
that  Jesus  sat  at  table  in  the  Pliarisces'house,  she  brought  a  box  of  ointment : 

38.  And  she  stood  at  his  feet  behind  him  weeping,  and  began  to  wash  his  feet 
with  tears,  and  did  wipe  them  with  the  hairs  of  her  head,  and  kissed  his  feet,  and 
anointed  them  with  the  ointment 

39.  Now  when  the  Pharisee  which  hade  him,  saw  it,  he  spake  within  himself 
saying,  If  this  man  were  a  prophet,  he  would  surely  have  known  who  and  what 
manner  of  woman  this  is  which  toucheth  him,  for  she  is  a  sinner. 

40.  And  Jesus  answered  .and  said  unto  him  :  Simon,  I  have  somewhat  to  say 
unto  thee.     And  he  said.  Master,  say  on. 

41.  There  was  a  certain  lender  which  had  two  debtors :  the  one  owed  five 
hundred  pence,  and  the  other  fifty. 

42.  When  they  had  nothing  to  pay,  he  forgave  them  both.  Which  of  them 
therefore,  tell  [me]  will  love  him  most? 

43.  Simon  answered  and  said,  I  suppose  that  he  to  whom  he  forgave  most. 
And  he  said  unto  him  :  Thou  hast  truly  judged. 

44.  Then  he  turned  to  the  woman,  and  said  unto  Simon,  Seest  thou  this  wo- 
man ?    I  entered  into  thine  house,  and  thou  givest  me  no  water  to  my  feet :  but 


APPENDIX  I.       (continued.) 


459 


COVERDALE. 
Ldke  7  :  36-50. 
And  one  of  tbo  Pharisees  desired  liim 
that  he  would  eat  with  him.  And  lie 
went  into  the  Pbansees  liouse,  and  sat 
him  down  at  the  table.  And  behold, 
there  was  in  the  city  a  woman  which 
was  a  sinner.  When  she  knew  that 
Jesus  Bat  at  the  table  in  the  Pharisees 
house,  slie  brought  a  box  with  oint- 
ment, and  stood  behind  at  l-is  feet  and 
wept,  and  began  to  water  his  feet  witli 
tears,  and  to  diy  them  with  the  hairs 
of  her  head,  and  kissed  his  feet,  and 
anointed  them  with  ointment. 

But  when  the  Pharisee  which  had 
called  him  saw  that,  he  spake  within 
himself  and  said  :  If  this  man  were  a 
prophet,  he  would  know  who  and  what 
manner  of  woman  this  is  that  toucheth 
him,  fur  she  is  a  sinner.  And  Jesus 
answered  and  said  unto  him  :  Simon,  I 
have  somewhat  to  say  unto  thee.  He 
said:  Master,  say  on.  A  certain  lender 
had  two  debtors,  the  one  owed  Ave  hun- 
dred pence,  the  other  fifty  :  but  when 
they  had  nothing  to  pay,  he  forgave 
them  both.  Tell  me  which  of  them 
will  love  him  most  ?  Shnon  answered 
and  said  :  He,  I  suppose,  to  Whom  he 
forgave  most.  Then  said  he  unto  him: 
Thou  hast  judged  right. 

And  he  turned  him  to  the  woman,  and 
B.aid  unto  Simon  :  Seest  thou  this  wo- 
man ?  I  am  come  into  thine  house, 
thou  hast  given  me  no  water  unto  my 


CRANMER. 

Luke  7  :  36-50. 

And  one  of  the  Pharisees  desired  him 
that  ho  would  eat  with  him.  And  he 
went  into  the  Pharisees  house  and  sat 
down  to  meat.  And  behold  a  woman 
in  that  city  (which  was  a  sinner)  as 
soon  as  she  knew  that  Jesus  sat  at  meat 
in  tlie  Pharisees  house,  she  brought  an 
alabaster  box  of  ointment,  and  stood  at 
his  feet  behmd  him  weeping,  and  began 
to  wash  his  feet  with  tears,  and  did 
wipe  tliem  with  the  hairs  of  her  head, 
and  kissed  his  feet,  .and  anointed  them 
with  the  ointment.  When  the  Pharisee 
which  had  bidden  him  saw,  he  spake 
within  himself,  saying  :  If  this  man 
were  a  prophet,  he  would  surely  know 
who  and  what  manner  of  woman  thia 
is  that  touched  him,  for  she  is  a  sin- 
ner. And  Jesus  answered  and  s.aid 
unto  him  :  Simon,  I  have  somewhat  to 
say  unto  thee.  And  he  said,  Master, 
say  on.  There  was  a  certain  lender 
which  had  two  debtors,  the  one  owed 
five  hundred  pence,  and  the  other  fi.fty. 
When  they  had  nothing  to  pay,  he  for- 
gave them  both.  Tell  me  therefore, 
which  of  them  will  love  him  most  ? 
Simon  answered  and  said  :  I  suppose 
that  he  to  whom  he  forgave  most. 
And  he  said  unto  him  :  Thou  hast 
truly  judged. 

Aid  he  turned  to  the  woman,  and 
said  unto  Simon  :  Seest  thou  this  wo- 
man ?  I  entered  into  thy  house,  thou 
gavest  me  no  water  for  my  feet ;  but 


BISHOPS.    Luke  7:  36— 50. 

36.  And  one  of  the  Pharisees  desired  him  that  he  would  eat  with  him.  And 
he  went  into  the  Pharisees  liouse  and  sat  down  to  meat. 

37.  And  behold,  a  woman  in  that  city,  which  was  a  sinner,  when  she  knew 
that  Jesus  sat  at  meat  in  the  Pharisees  house,  she  brought  an  alabaster  box  of 
ointment : 

38.  And  stood  at  his  feet  behind  him  weeping,  and  began  to  wash  his  feet 
with  tears,  and  did  wipe  thorn  clean  with  the  hairs  of  her  head,  and  all  to 
kissed  his  feet,  and  annointed  them  with  the  ointment. 

39.  When  the  Pharisee  which  had  bidden  him,  saw  it,  he  spake  within  him- 
self, sajing:  If  this  man  were  a  projjhet,  he  would  surely  know  who  and  what 
manner  of  woman  is  this  that  toucheth  him:  for  she  is  a  sinner. 

40.  And  Jesus  answering  said  unto  him:  "Simon,  I  have  somewhat  to  say  tm- 
to  thee.    And  and  he  saith.  Master,  say  on. 

41.  There  was  a  certain  lender  which  had  two  debtors;  the  one  owed  five 
hundred  pence,  and  the  other  fifty. 

42.  When  they  had  nothing  to  pay,  he  forgave  them  both.  Tell  me,  there- 
fore, which  of  them  will  love  him  most? 

43.  Simon  answered  and  said:  I  suppose  that  he  to  whom  he  forgave  most. 
And  he  said  unto  him,  Thou  hast  truly  judged. 

44.  And  he  turned  to  the  woman,  and  said  unto  Simon:  Seest  thou  thia 
woman  ?    I  entered  into  thine  house,  thoti  gavest  me  ao  water  for  my  feet :  but 


460 


APPENDIX    I.       (continued). 


WICKLIFFE. 
ed  my  feet  -with  tears,  and  -wiped  witli 
her  hairs.  T}iou  hast  not  given  to  me 
a  kiss ;  but  this,  sithen  she  entered, 
ceased  not  to  kiss  my  feet.  Tliou 
anointedst  not  mine  head  with  oi!^  but 
this  anointed  my  feet  -witb  ointment. 
For  the  which  thing  I  s.ay  to  Iheo, 
many  sins  ben  forgiven  to  her,  for  she 
hath  loved  much  f  and  to  whom  is  less 
foi-given,  he  loveth  less.  And  Jesus 
eaid  to  her.  Thy  sins  be  forgiven  to  thee. 
And  they  that  satten  together  at  the 
meat,  begun  to  say  within  themself, 
"Who  is  this  that  forgiveth  sins  ?  But 
he  said  to  the  woman.  Thy  faith  hath 
made  thee  safe  ;  go  thou  in  peace. 


TTNDALE. 
she  hath  washed  my  feet  with  tearsi 
and  wiped  them  ^\^th  the  h.airs  of  her 
head.  Thou  gavest  me  no  kiss  :  but 
she,  since  the  time  I  came  in,  hath  not 
ceased  to  kiss  my  feet.  Mine  head  with 
oil  thou  didst  not  anoint :  and  she  hath 
anointed  my  feet  with  ointment. 
Wherefore  I  say  unto  thee  ;  III  any  gins 
are  forgiven  her,  because  she  loved 
much.  To  whom  less  is  forgiven,  the 
same  doth  less  love. 

And  he  said  unto  her,  Thy  sins  are 
forgiven  thee.  And  they  that  sat  at 
meat  with  him,  began  to  say  within 
themselves  :  Who  is  this  which  for- 
giveth sins  also  ?  And  he  said  to  the 
woman  :  Thy  faith  hath  saved  thee;  Go 
in  peace. 


GENEVAN". 

she  hath  washed  my  feet  with  tears,  and  wiped  them  with  the  hairs  of  her 
head. 

4.5.  Thou  gavest  me  no  kiss  :  hut  she,  since  the  time  I  came  in,  hath  not  ceased 
to  kiss  my  feet. 

46.  Mine  head  with  oil  thou  didst  not  anoint :  but  she  hath  anointed  my  feo* 
•with  ointment. 

47.  Wherefore  I  say  unto  thee :  Many  sins  are  forgiven  her  ;  for  she  loved 
much.    To  whom  a  little  is  forgiven,  he  doth  love  a  little. 

48.  And  he  said  unto  her.  Thy  sins  are  forgiven  thee. 

49.  And  they  that  sat  at  table  with  him,  began  to  say  ■within  themselves  : 
Who  is  this  that  even  forgiveth  sins  ? 

50.  And  he  said  to  the  woman  ;  Thy  faith  hath  saved  thee  :  go  in  peaca 


APPENDIX    I.       (continued). 


461 


COVERDALE. 
feet;  but  she  liath  watered  my  feet  with 
tears,  and  dried  tliein  with  the  hairs  of 
her  head.  Thou  hast  given  me  no  kiss, 
but  she,  since  the  time  she  came  in, 
hath  not  ceased  to  kiss  my  feet.  Thou 
hast  not  anointed  my  head  with  oil,  but 
she  hath  anointed  my  head  witli  oint- 
ment. Therefore  I  say  unto  thee : 
Many  sins  are  forgiven  lier,  for  she  hath 
loved  mucli.  But  unto  wliom  less  is 
forgiven,  the  same  loveth  the  less. 

And  he  said  unto  her  :  Thy  sins  are 
forgiven  thee.  Then  they  that  sat  at 
the  table  with  him,  began  to  say  with- 
in themselves  :  What  is  he  this,  that 
forgiveth  sins  also?  But  he  said  unto 
the  woman  :  Thy  faith  hath  saved 
thee,  Go  thy  way  in  peace. 


CRANMER. 
she  hath  wa.shed  my  feet  with  tears, 
and  wiped  tliem  with  tlie  hairs  of  her 
head.  Thou  gavest  mo  no  kiss  :  but 
she,  since  the  lime  I  came  in,  hath  not 
ceased  to  kiss  my  feet.  Mine  head 
with  oil  thou  didst  not  anoint :  but  she 
hath  anointed  my  feet  with  ointment. 
Wherefore  I  say  unto  thee  :  many  sina 
are  forgiven  her,  for  she  loved  much. 
To  whom  less  is  foi  given,  the  same  doth 
less  love.  And  he  said  unto  her  :  thy 
sins  are  forgiven  thee.  And  they  that 
sat  at  meat  with  him,  began  to  say 
within  themselves.  Who  is  this  which 
forgiveth  sins  also?  And  he  said  to 
the  woman  :  Thy  faith  hath  saved 
thee  :  Go  in  peace. 


BISHOPS. 

Bhe  hath  washed  my  feet  with  tears,  and  wiped  them  with  the  hairs  of  her 
head. 

45.  Thou  gavest  mo  no  kiss  ;  but  this  woman,  since  the  time  I  came  in,  hath 
not  ceased  to  kiss  my  feet. 

46.  Mine  head  with  oil  thou  didst  not  anoint;  but  this  woman  hath  anointed 
my  feet  with  ointment. 

47.  Wherefore  I  say  unto  thee,  many  sins  are  forgiven  her,  for  she  loved 
much;  to  whom  little  is  forgiven,  the  same  loveth  little. 

48.  And  he  said  vinto  her,  thy  sins  are  forgiven  thee.  , 
40.  And  they  that  sat  at  meat  with  him,  began  to  say  within  themselves,  who 

is  this  that  forgiveth  sins  also  ? 
50.    And  he  said  to  the  woman  :  Thy  faith  hath  saved  thee  ;  go  in  peace. 


462 


APPENDIX    I.       (continued.) 


TTKDALE. 

Matt.  18  :  15.  Moreover  if  thy  bro' 
tlier  trespass  against  thee,  go  and  tell 
him  his  fault  between  him  and  thee 
alone.  If  he  hear  thee,  thou  hast  won 
thy  brother  ;  but  if  he  hear  tliee  not, 
then  take  with  thee  one  or  two,  that  in 
the  mouth  of  two  or  three  witnesses,  all 
sayings  may  stand.  If  he  hear  not 
them,  tell  it  unto  the  congregation  ;  if 
he  hear  not  the  congregation,  take  him 
as  an  heatlien  man  and  as  a  publican. 

Acts  2  :  47.  And  the  Lord  added  to 
the  congregation  daily  them  that  should 
be  saved. 

Acts  8:1.  At  that  time  was  there  a 
great  persecution  against  the  congre- 
gation which  was  at  Jerusalem. 

Acts  11 :  22.  Tidings  of  this  came 
unto  the  ears  of  the  congregation  which 
was  in  Jerusalem.  26.  It  chanced 
that  a  whole  year  they  had  their  con- 
versation with  the  congregation  there. 

Acts  12  :  L  In  that  time  Herod  the 
King  laid  hands  on  certain  of  the  con- 
gregation to  vex  them.  5.  But  prayer 
was  made  without  ceasing  of  the  con- 
gregation unto  God  for  him. 

Acts  13  :  1.  There  were  at  Antioch 
in  the  congregation  prophets  and  doc- 
tors. 

.^cts  14 :  23.  And  when  they  had 
ordained  them  seniors*  by  election  in 
every  congregation. 

1  Cor.  4  :  17.  Even  as  I  teach  every 
■where,  in  all  congregations. 

Heb.  12  :  22.  TBut  ye  are  come  unto 
the  mount  Sion,  and  to  the  city  of  the 
living  God,  the  celestial  Jerusalem,  and 
to  an  innumerable  sight  of  angels,  and 
unto  the  congregation  of  the  tirst  born 
sons. 

*  Afterwards,  elders. 


COVERDALE. 

Matt.  18  :  15.  If  thy  brother  trespass 
against  thee,  go  and  tell  him  his  fault 
between  thee  and  him  alone.  If  he  hear 
thee,  thou  hast  won  thy  brother.  But 
if  he  hear  thee  not,  then  take  yet  with 
thee  one  or  two,  that  in  the  mouth  of 
two  or  three  witnesses,  eveiy  matter 
may  be  stablished.  If  he  hear  not 
them,  tell  it  unto  the  congregation.  If 
he  hear  not  the  congregation,  hold  him 
as  an  heathen  and  pubhcan. 

Acts  2  :  47.  And  the  Lord  added  to 
the  congregation  daily  such  as  should 
be  saved. 

Acts  8:1.  At  the  same  time,  there 
was  a  great  persecution  over  the  con. 
gregation  at  Jerusalem. 

Acts  11 :  22.  This  tidings  of  them 
came  to  the  ears  of  the  congregation 
at  Jerusalem.  26.  It  chanced  that 
a  whole  year  they  were  there  conver- 
sant together  in  the  congregation. 

Acts  12  :  1.  At  the  same  time  laid 
King  Herod  hands  upon  certain  of  the 
congregation  to  vex  them.  5.  But 
prayer  was  made  without  ceasing  of 
the  congregation,  unto  God  for  him. 

Acts  13  :  1.  There  were  at  Antioch 
in  the  congregation,-  prophets  and 
teachers. 

Acts  14  :  23.  And  when  they  had 
ordained  them  elders  by  election, 
through  aU  the  congregations. 

1  Cor.  4  :  17.    Even  as  I  teach  every 

where,  in  all  congregations. 

Heb.  12  :  22.  But  ye  are  come  to  the 
mount  Sion,  and  to  the  city  of  the  living 
God,  to  the  celestial  Jerjsalem,  and 
to  the  multitude  of  many  thousand 
angels,  and  unto  the  congregation  of 
the  first  born. 


GENEVAN. 

Mat.  18  :  15.  Moreover,  If  thy  brother  trespass  against  thee,  go  and  tell  him 
his  fault  between  him  and  thee  alone.  If  he  hear  thee,  thou  hast  won  thy 
t)rother. 

16.  But  if  he  hear  thee  not,  then  take  yet  with  thee  one  or  two ;  that  by  the 
mouth  of  two  or  three  witnesses,  all  the  matter  may  be  confirmed. 

17.  And  if  he  will  not  vouchsafe  to  hear  them,  tell  it  unto  the  congregation. 
And  if  he  refuse  to  hear  the  congregation,  let  him  be  unto  thee  as  an  heathen 
man,  and  as  a  publican. 

Acts  2  :  47.    And  the  Lord  added  to  the  church  daily  such  as  should  he  saved. 

Acts  8  :  1.  And  at  that  time,  there  was  a  great  persecution  against  the  con- 
gregation which  was  at  Jerusalem. 

Acts  11 :  22.  Tiding  of  these  things  came  imto  the  ears  of  the  congregation 
which  was  in  Jerusalem. 

26.  And  it  chanced  that  a  whole  year  they  had  their  conversation  with  the 
church  there. 


APPENDIX    I.       (continued.) 


463 


CRANMER. 

Mat.  18  :  15.  Moreover,  if  thy  brother 
trespass  against  thee,  go  and  tell  him 
his  fault  between* him  and  thee  alone. 
If  ho  hear  thee  thou  hast  won  thy 
brother.  But  if  he  hear  thee  not,  then 
take  yet  witli  tlioo  one  or  two,  that  in 
the  moutli  of  two  or  three  witnesses, 
every  matter  may  be  stablislied.  If  he 
hear  not  them,  tell  it  unto  the  congrega- 
tion. If  he  hear  not  the  congregation, 
let  him  be  to  tliee  as  an  heathen  man 
and  as  a  publican. 


Acts  2  :  47.  And  the  Lord  added  to 
the  congregation  daily  such  as  should 
be  saved. 

Acts  8  : 1.  And  at  that  time,  there 
was  a  great  persecution  against  the  con- 
gregation which  was  at  Jerusalem. 

Acts  11 :  22.  Tidings  of  these  things 
came  unto  the  ears  of  the  congregation 
which  was  In  Jerusalem.  26.  And  it 
chanced  that  a  whole  year  they  had 
their  conversation  with"  the  congrega- 
tion, there. 

Acts  12  : 1.  At  the  same  time  Herod 
the  King  stretched  forth  liis  hands  to 
vex  certain  of  the  congregation,  5.  But 
prayer  was  made  without  ceasing  of 
the  congregation  unto  God  for  him. 

Acts  13  :  I.  There  were  in  the  con- 
gregation that  is  at  Antioch,  certain 
prophets  and  teachers. 

Acts  14  :  23.  And  when  they  had 
ordained  them  elders  by  election  in 
every  congregation. 

1  Cor.  4  :  17.  Even  as  I  teach  eveiy 
where,  in  all  congregations. 

Heb.  12  :  22.  But  ye  are  come  nn- 
to  the  mount  Sion,  and  to  the  city 
of  the  living  God,  the  celestial  Jerusa- 
lem :  and  to  an  innumerable  sight  of 
angels,  and  unto  the  congregation  of 
the  first  born  sons. 


BISHOPS. 
Mat.  18  :  15.  Moreover,  if  thy  bro- 
ther shall  trespass  against  thee,  go  and 
tell  him  his  fault  between  thee  and  him 
alone  ;  if  he  shall  hear  theo,  thou  hast 
won  thy  brother. 

16.  But  if  lie  will  not  hear  thee, 
then  take  yet  with  thee  one  or  two  ; 
that  in  the  mouth  of  two  or  three 
witnesses,  every  word  may  be  stab- 
lished. 

17.  If  he  will  not  hear  them,  tell  it 
unto  the  church  :  if  he  will  not  hear 
the  church,  let  him  be  unto  thee  as  an 
heathen  man  and  a  publican. 

Acts  2  :  47.  And  the  Lord  added  to 
the  church  daily  such  as  should  be 
saved. 

Acts  8  : 1.  And  at  that  time  there 
was  a  great  persecution  against  the 
church  which  was  at  Jerusalem. 

Acts  11 :  22.  Then  tidings  of  these 
things  came  unto  the  ears  of  the  church 
which  was  in  Jerusalem.  26.  And  it 
came  to  pass  that  a  whole  year  they 
had  their  conversation  with  the  church 
there.  '" 

Acts  12  : 1.  At  the  same  time  He- 
rod the  King  stretched  forth  his  hand.i 
to  vex  certain  of  the  church.  5.  But 
prayer  was  made  without  ceasing  of 
the  church  unto  God  for  him. 

Acts  13  :  1.  There  was  also  in  the 
church  that  was  at  Antioch,  certain 
prophets  and  teachers. 

Acts  14 :  23.  And  when  they  had 
ordained  them  elders  by  election  in 
3very  church. 

1  Cor.  4  :  17.  As  I  teach  every  where 
in  all  churches. 

Heb.  12  :  22.  But  ye  are  come  unto 
the  mount  Sion,  and  to  the  city  of  the 
living  God,  the  celestial  Jerusalem, 
and  to  an  innumerable  company  of  an- 
gels, 

23.  And  imto  the  congregation  of 
the  first  born. 


GENEVAN. 

Acts  12  ;  1.  In  that  time,  Herod  the  king  stretched  forth  his  hands  to  vex 
certain  of  the  congregation. 

5.    But  prayer  was  made  without  ceasing  of  the  church  unto  God  for  him. 

Acts  13:  1.  There  were  in  the  congregation  that  was  at  Antioch,  certain 
prophets  and  teachers. 

Acts  14  :  23.  And  wdien  they  had  ordained  them  elders  by  election  in  every 
church. 

1  Cor.  4  :  17-«  Even  as  I  teach  eveiy  where  in  all  congregations. 

Heb.  12 :  22.  But  ye  are  come  unto  the  mount  Sion,  and  to  the  city  of  the 
living  God,  the  celestial  Jerusalem  ;  and  to  the  company  of  innumerable  angejs, 

23.    And  to  the  congregation  of  the  first  born  sons. 


464  APPENDIX   II-III. 


APPENDIX   II. 

THE  IMMACULATE  CONCEPTION". 

As  this  doctrine  is  of  late  claimed  to  have  been  the  universal  scnss  of  the  Holy 
Catholic  Church  in  all  ages,  though  not  recognized  by  formal  act,  it  may  be  in- 
teresting to  hear  Sir  Thomas  More  s  testimony  on  the  point.  It  is  contained  in 
a  letter  from  Margaret  Roper  to  her  sister-in-law,  detailing  an  interview  with 
her  father  in  the  Tower.    She  thus  gives  his  words  : 

"  For  an  ensample  of  some  such  manner  of  things,  I  have  I  trow  before  this 
time  told  you,  that  whether  our  blessed  lady  were  conceived  in  original  sin  or 
not,  was  sometime  in  great  question  among  the  great  learned  men  of  Christen- 
dom. And  whether  it  be  yet  decided  and  determined  by  any  general  council, 
I  remember  not.  But  this  I  remember  well,  that  notwithstanding  that  the  feast 
of  her  conception  wag  then  celebrated  in  the  church  (at  theleast  wise,  in  divers 
provinces),  yet  was  holy  St.  Bernard,  which,  as  his  manifold  books  in  the  praise 
and  laud  of  our  lady  do  declare,  was  ot  as  devout  affection  toward  all  things 
sounding  toward  her  commendation  that  he  thought  might  well  be  verified  or 
suffered,  as  any  man  living  ;  yet,  I  say,  was  that  holy  devout  man  against  that 
part  of  her  praise,  as  appeareth  well  by  an  epistle  of  his,  wherein  he  right  soro 
and  with  great  reason  argueth  there  against,  and  approveth  not  the  institution 
of  that  feast  neither.  Nor  was  he  not  of  this  mind  alone,  but  many  other  well 
learned  men  with  him,  and  right  holy  men  too.  Now  there  was  on  the  other 
side,  the  blessed  holy  bishop  St.  Anselm,  and  he  not  alone  neither,  but  many 
very  well  learned,  and  very  virtuous  also  with  him."— Afore's  English  Works, 
p  1439 


APPENDIX   111. 

THE  SOLDIER'S  BIBLE. 

An  account  of  this  Bible,  prepared  in  1643  by  Cromwell's  order  for  the  use  of 
his  army,  has  been  published  by  George  Livermore,  Esq.,  Cambridge,  Mass.,  by 
whose  permission  I  quote  from  it  the  following  particulars. 

'The  Souldier's  Pocket  Bible'  consisted  of  appropriate  selections  from  the 
Scriptures,  printed  in  a  pamphlet  form,  on  a  single  sheet  folded  in  16mo.,  and 
making  sixteen  pages.  It  was  generally  buttoned  between  the  coat  and  th» 
vest,  next  the  heart  The  title-page,  printed  within  a  neat  border,  reads  aa 
foUows  •— 


APPENDIX   in. 


465 


THE  I 


np 


I    SOULDIERS    I 

i        Pocket  Bible:        | 

^  Containing  the  most  (if  not  all)  those  |a 
%  places  contained  in  holy  Scripture,  |^ 
tf-  which  doe  sliew  the  qual ideations  of  his  |^ 
^  inner  man,  that  is  a  fit  Souldier  to  fight  %, 
^  the  Lords  Battels,  both  before  he  fight,  |^ 
2      in  the  fight,  and  after  the  fight ;  io 

<^  Which  Scriptures  are  reduced  to  se-  S° 
c^  verall  heads,  and  fitly  applyed  to  the  ^ 
^  Souldiers  severall  occasions,  and  so  may  |^ 
^  supply  the  want  of  the  whole  Bible,  ^ 
o|  which  a  Souldier  cannot  conveniently  %3 
%      carry  about  him :  2° 

^  And  may  bee  also  usefull  for  any  ^ 
"%  Christian  to  meditate  upon,  now  in  J^ 
^  this  miserable  time  of  Warre.  1^ 

'¥i         Imprimatur,        Edm.  Calamy.  ^ 

tM  ^ ,     J5« 

cfi  ~~~ ~  ^ 


%  Jos.  18.    This  Book  of  the  Law  shall  not  depart  out 
%      of  thy  mouth,  but  thou  shalt  meditate  therein  day  '^ 
^      and  night,  that  thou  maist  observe  to  doe  accor-  <^ 

2  dintj  to  all  that  Is  written  therein,  for  then  thou  3o 
%      shalt  make  thy  way  prosperous,  and  have  good  S, 

3  Buccesse.  .  Sq 


Printed  at  London  by  G.  B.  and  R.  W.  for  % 
G.  C.  1  6  4  3  .  i 


465  APPENDIX    III. 

"The  selections  from  Scripture  are  divided  into  eighteen  chapters,  each  •with 
an  appropriate  heading  to  indicate  the  class  of  Scriptures  contained  therein.  A 
few  examples  of  these  headings  or  titles  will  sutficiently  show  their  general 
character. 

1.  A  Souldier  must  not  doe  wickedly. 

2.  A  Souldier  must  be  valiant  for  God's  cause. 

3.  A  Souldier  must  pray  before  he  go  to  fight." 

Mr.  L.  refers  to  the  remarkable  fact,  "  that  the  success  of  Cromwell's  army 
commenced  immediately  on  the  publication  of  The  Souldier's  Pocket  Bible ; 
and  they  never  after  lost  a  battle  !" 

Only  two  copies  of  this  curious  work  are  now  knovra  to  be  in  existence,  one 
of  which  is  in  the  possession  of  Mr.  Livermore.  The  other  has  but  recently 
come  to  light  in  England.  On  this  point,  I  take  the  liberty  of  making  the  follow- 
ing interesting  extract  from  a  recent  letter  from  Mr.  L.  "  It  is  quite  remarkable, 
that  the  question  concerning  the 'Souldier's  Bible'  should  be  answered  on  this 
side  of  the  Atlantic.  English  Bibliographers  have  never  been  able,  till  the  past 
year,  to  decide  what  edition  of  the  Bible  was  furnished  to  Cromwell's  army ; 
and  the  existence  of 'The  Souldier's  Bible'  was  unknown,  until  I  had  sent  a  de- 
scription of  it  to  Rev.  Dr.  Cotton,  George  OfTor,  Esq.,  Henry  Stevens,  Esq.,  and 
other  eminent  English  Bibliographers.  This  little  work  was  entirely  unknown  to 
them.  After  a  long  and  diligent  search  in  various  public  and  private  libraries, 
only  one  other  copy  has  been  found,  and  that  is  in  the  British  Museum." 

On  another  point  of  interest,  in  reply  to  an  enquiry  of  mine,  he  says  :  "The 
selections  from  Scripture  are,  in  almost  every  instance,  taken  from  the  Genevan 
Version  ;  but  in  some  cases,  a  very  few.  King  James'  Version  has  been  used. 
In  a  few  cases,  the  phraseology  varies  slightly  from  all  the  English  Versions 
which  I  have  examined." 

This  is  an  interesting  corroborative  testimony  to  the  preference  of  our  Puri- 
tan forefathers  for  the  Genevan  Version  (see  p.  367),  so  late  as  1643 


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